Mr Harris, whose Sydney-based retail group is now expanding west, opening stores in Bathurst and Orange, suggests specifically growers in the Central West would be able to secure better prices if they worked as a regional single selling group.

“The major retailers are so strong that it is my recommendation that growers in this district form a community in order to serve the bigger retailers better,” he said.

Speaking at the Australian National Field Days as part of a fruit and vine day event, Mr Harris (pictured below) said farmers throughout NSW could follow the lead of Tasmanian cherry growers, who had formed a successful co-operative and negotiated improved deals with major retailers.

He said fruit and vegetable growers needed to be able to negotiate with retailers other than Coles and Woolworths, which often resisted buying ripened goods.

“One of the unfortunate things is that the big two resist ripeness in fruit.

“You, as growers, know you cannot get every product perfectly sized and ripened every time.

“We need consistently good quality produce and, if some of that is riper than others, that is not necessarily a bad thing.”

Read more agribusiness stories in this week's The Land.