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Sydney consumers could be hit with higher prices for leafy vegetables such as silverbeet, shallots, coriander and endive following this week's floods, farmers say.
Soft leaf greens – much of which are grown in the Sydney basin – were the crops worst hit by the wild weather, which put some farms underwater and left many more waterlogged in deep mud.
Farmer and wholesaler Billy Lee, who grows Asian vegetables on his 10 acre property in Marsden Park, said the rains had hit his business hard.
"Our farm is actually underwater. The vegetables like baby bok choy can stand the rain but a lot of other things are just going into the mud, like our shallots, coriander."
"Of course prices will go up," he said. "But that's no use for me because I haven't got them to sell.
"We're going to lose a lot of income."
Mr Lee said insurance would not cover crops destroyed while still growing in the ground.
The Sydney basin accounts for around seven per cent of NSW agricultural output in dollar terms, and nearly half the value of all the state's vegetable production, according to a 2010 report by the Department of Primary Industries.
A spokeswoman from the DPI said Friday it was too early to estimate what fresh produce or stock losses would be like as there was still so much floodwater on the ground.
But growers said those with small farms in low-lying areas around Windsor and Richmond were among the worst impacted in this week's heavy rains which caused eight fatalities and extensive property damage in Sydney and coastal NSW regions.
Brothers Sam and Steve Grima are growers and wholesalers with 100 acres at Horsley Park, where they grow vegetables including cabbages, beetroot, kale and corn.
"It was crazy, just chaos," Sam Grima said. "We didn't go underwater but it makes it very difficult to pick because you walk in there and you're nearly up to your knees in it and you leave your gumboot behind!"
He said the rains will delay winter planting.
"There will be some shortages and the prices will go up a bit. It will impact some prices for the short term. Things like silverbeet will be more affected, and cabbages, all the tender stuff, the salad lines. They can't handle the weather. But it's the time of the year – if it was summer, it would be a disaster. The heat affects everything, but because the weather is cooler the vegies can cope a bit better."
Andrew MacDonald from Ausveg, the peak industry body for vegetable growers, said they were monitoring the aftermath of the floods but were not yet aware of major interruptions to supply. "Because of the spread-out nature of Australia's various vegetable growing regions, we're fairly well positioned to meet any shortfalls," he said.
Supermarket industry sources said because of where the rains hit, they did not anticipate retail prices to be affected.
"Coles does not expect any impact on supply of fresh produce as no significant growing areas were affected by this week's weather events in NSW," said a Coles spokesperson.
