TASMANIAN opium poppy grower Andrew Colvin has plenty of words of warning for Victorian farmers thinking of entering the industry.
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Mr Colvin told this month’s South West Soils Conference in Colac that “growing poppies is a bit like gambling.”
Mr Colvin’s wins so far in growing the narcotic ingredient have been well ahead of his losses but he said it was getting harder to grow a successful crop.
Mr Colvin, who has been growing opium poppies for 17 years at Cressy in northern Tasmania, suffered his first crop failure last year because of an outbreak of systemic mildew.
Two other crops during the past 17 years have just broken even.
Mr Colvin said no chemical control had yet been found to tackle the outbreak of the new mildew and he was not growing poppies this year for the first time in 18 years.
His words of experience come as interest in producing opium poppies in Victoria grows following the state government’s move last year to legalise their cultivation for use as painkillers.
Poppy processor TPI Enterprises has moved to diversify its poppy supply beyond Tasmania and contracted farmers to grow poppies at several small sites across Victoria including at Ballarat. A company spokesman said it was seeking more farmers to grow the crop.
Mr Colvin said poppies had a long rotation period with a pasture phase in the middle. He had two paddocks infested with systemic mildew last year and would probably not grow opium poppies in those paddocks for another 8-10 years, he said.
Mr Colvin warned that growing opium poppies was expensive, costing about $2000 a hectare.
While some growers were able to make $8000-$10,000 a hectare, the average gross margins were $3700 a hectare, Mr Colvin said.
He urged farmers considering poppy production to start small because of the risks involved.
Growing poppies is a bit like gambling.
- Andrew Colvin
“Poppies are fragile. They do not like extremes, particularly heat or water logging,” Mr Colvin said.
They also required a lot of inputs and he sprayed his crops about 10 times, he said.
“It is essential you have a boom spray. You have to look at a poppy crop every two to three days,” Mr Colvin said.
“You are looking for weeds, mildew, whether it needs watering.”
Poppies were grown for the alkaloids in the poppy capsule but getting good alkaloid content was still an unknown science, Mr Colvin said. Crops might look fantastic but yield little alkaloid, he said.
Keeping crops secure was also a prime concern for growers, Mr Colvin said.
“You are growing heroin. You do not want people stealing the crop,” he said.
