EMBATTLED carrot farmers are feeling the pain of increased production costs more so than other vegetable farmers, according to the industry's peak body Ausveg.
Citing data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), Ausveg spokesman Shaun Muscat said from 2007-08 to 2011-12, average domestic carrot prices fell by 24 per cent, while average input costs increased by 42pc.
He said while rising costs were outpacing the prices all vegetable growers received for their produce, the data showed they had "undoubtedly" been squeezing carrot growers the hardest.
But while times are tough for carrot growers, huge export opportunities exist in Asia, and now is the time to dig in the spurs when it comes to cutting production costs.
"I would advise all growers to stick with it because there are major opportunities moving forward in the long run," Mr Muscat said.
"There are definitely benefits to be had but it's a long-term type of project we're dealing with."
In 2012-13, carrots and turnips were Australia's largest exported vegetable commodity, representing more than 20pc of all vegetables exported.
In 2013-14, Australia exported about $56 million worth of carrots, a 9pc increase from the previous year.
The largest export market was the United Arab Emirates, totalling $17 million, ahead of Singapore ($9 million), Malaysia ($7 million) and Saudi Arabia ($7 million).
Given China, a major carrot producer, has lower costs of production and freight to many markets, the majority of Australia's exported carrots are whole, long orange carrots, sought after for their quality.
With the predicted boom in the Asian fresh carrot market still a way off, one company, Kagome Australia, is positioning itself for some more immediate gains.
The Echuca-based Japanese vegetable processing company last year entered the Asian carrot juice concentrate market.
The company's harvest of orange, yellow and purple carrots comes from its 80-hectare holdings at Bunnaloo, in the NSW's far south, to form 600 tonnes of packaged concentrate a year.
Kagome chief executive John Brady said the concentrate was in demand from Asian processors who used it to create ready-to-go vegetable juices that were popular in Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
Mr Brady said there was still a lot to learn about growing and processing carrots.
The company, which mainly pro-cessed tomatoes, benefitted from an increased workload.
"We're growing carrots so we utilise our plant for more of the time during the year, which allows us to spread some of our overheads from our tomatoes to the carrots,"?he said.
"It keeps my tomato price down, and that's critically important."
A by-product of the concentrate could open doors to further markets.
Pumace, a fibre-rich orange substance which was separated from the concentrate, had great potential for use in the wider food processing sector as a starch replacement, Mr Brady said.
"Pumace is completely tasteless, 100pc natural, gluten free, and has no sugar," he said.
"Most of our customers don't know what it is, so lately we've been giving them lots of samples because it could be an interesting product in the future to replace the starch and unnatural thickeners they put in their products."
