GREENHOUSE horticulture growers need to regain marketing control and add value to their products if they are to avoid the crisis facing the industry in Europe.
The warning came from Meiny Prins, chief executive of Priva, a family-run business based in the Netherlands which employs about 400 staff worldwide.
Ms Prins told last week's Hydroponic Farmers Federation conference at Cranbourne that the greenhouse sector in Europe was being hampered by the attitude of growers, the power of supermarkets and the failure of governments to subsidise innovative projects, as well as the recession.
Ms Prins said there were striking parallels between Europe and Australia.
In both, most growers have focused on increasing production and reducing costs.
"(In Europe) this increased the power of the supermarkets, because the growers were competing with each other on price, and simply allowed themselves to be played off against one another," Ms Prins said.
"The story ends with a few very large nursery operators, who are surviving because they have relatively low production costs due to economies of scale, while lots of small-scale growers were unable to keep their heads above water and were forced to close."
Ms Prins said the solution for growers was to take responsibility for the sale of their own products and become marketers, spruiking the added value of sustainable production to obtain a price premium.
"Do not leave that to the supermarkets," she said.
Ms Prins also urged growers to collaborate with each other and companies in other parts of the supply chain, both in Australia and overseas.
She said making a profit was not "an end in itself", but could be used to fund investment to improve farming, help make products mean more to customers and the environment, and leave a better world for future generations.
Ms Prins said the looming food security crisis would not be solved by traditional forms of agriculture.
"Realistically, we can produce enough only by developing very efficient food production systems that are located in close proximity to the large metropolitan areas of the world," she said.
