Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor says opening new markets into Asia is just as important for agricultural competitiveness as reducing the power of monopolies.

Mr Taylor was welcoming today’s release of the Federal Government’s Agricultural Competitiveness Green Paper which is now available for public comment.

Speaking on Sky Television’s Lunchtime Agenda, he said there was an extraordinary opportunity ahead for Australian agriculture.

“If we’re going to capture the opportunity, clearly monopolisation of our supply chains is one of those factors. But it’s not just Coles and Woollies, we see major issues in a number of other supply chains, whether it’s wheat or sugar or other commodities.

“There are very legitimate debates about competition policy and how we get a farm-gate price that sufficiently rewards farmers so that they’ll invest, create jobs, produce more, export more and create prosperity in the regions,” Mr Taylor said.

“We have to focus on creating alternatives to the supermarkets. The competitiveness paper makes that very, very clear and as a business person I know nothing beats having an alternative.”

Mr Taylor thanked farmers in the Hume electorate who had sent feedback or contributed via a taskforce meeting in Goulburn in March this year to the development of the Green Paper.

“The Green Paper has been built from the ground up drawing on valuable input from farmers and industry and community representatives.

“If you want to help shape Australia’s agriculture policy agenda, then I encourage you to make a submission against the Green Paper,” he said.

He said there were 25 diverse policy themes for comment in the Green Paper.

Submissions are due 5pm on 12 December 2014.

To find out more visit https://agriculturalcompetitiveness.dpmc.gov.au