The famed SPC Ardmona cannery has slashed its fruit intake, cancelled contracts with farmers and called for an emergency tax on imported canned fruit to save the industry. In the Goulburn Valley around Shepparton in north-east Victoria, 114 farmers have either had their quotas for next season cancelled or slashed. The cannery has announced that it will halve the pear and peach intake for the 2013-14 processing season and reduce processing at its Shepparton cannery to one day a week. Victorian…
