Lower costs 'mean more investment, jobs'

Maureen Dobra feels like a guinea pig and it has nothing to do with having sunk her teeth into lettuce growing as one of WA's biggest producers and processers of salad.

Mrs Dobra is about to buy a new truck and trailer as part of plans to expand the Loose Leaf Lettuce Company at Gingin and is in line for big savings under a deal between vegetablesWA and the WA Local Government Association.

She hopes the purchase will be one of the first where vegetablesWA members are able to lower input costs through discount pricing deals between WALGA and its preferred suppliers.

"We are looking at buying $350,000 to $500,000 worth of equipment and if I can make a saving on that of even 10 per cent it might be worth $50,000 to the business," Mrs Dobra said. "We can use that saving to invest more into growing, more into improving efficiency, and also employ more people because we will be growing more."

Mrs Dobra, the chairwoman of vegetablesWA, said growers had been hit hard by big rises in the cost of energy needed to run irrigation systems and cool rooms.

She said her business, which she operates with husband Barry and son Kevin, would look closely at the savings available in the field of contestable energy and sustainable energy infrastructure.

"I think it is a fantastic deal. We are going to work with this and if it is as good as it looks, there'll be great benefits," she said.

The Loose Leaf Lettuce Company produces about 20,000kg of salads a week, including salad mix, baby leaf spinach, rocket, cos lettuce and Asian greens, mainly for the food service industry. It has 42 employees and a monthly power bill of about $10,000.

"Energy prices have risen substantially over the past four years and wages have gone up each year," Mrs Dobra said.

"We've just had to absorb that."