Australia's largest mushroom producer, Costa, is unhappy with the way horticulture levies are managed and spent.
The Costa Group contributes $2 million to horticulture research, development and marketing. Costa produces truss tomatoes and berries in greenhouses, bananas, citrus, avocados, grapes and mushrooms.
Costa chief executive Harry Debney says his company would like greater transparency, particularly for mushroom levies he pays and argues his company could do a better job than the Mushroom Growers Association.
"We’re (Costa) around 40 per cent of the industry, we pay around $800,000 a year in a mushroom spawn levy, and the Peak Industry Body is currently lobbying the agriculture minister to double that levy, so potentially we could be footing a bill of $1.6 million.
"Now given 75 per cent of the levy should be spent on marketing, we have failed to obtain from the AMGA (Mushroom Growers) any effective cost benefit analysis, the money currently spent on marketing and we seriously disagree that they’re doing much to foster the growth.
"Now we are strong supporters to grow that business or category, but we think we spend more effectively in our own terms, our own funds, within our business, and we’re disadvantaged by a largely wasted effort by AMGA."
The ABC Rural article and audio are available here.
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