Tasmanian peas in jeopardy

If you're a fan of frozen peas and you buy a brand that has been processed at Simplot's Devonport plant, you have probably eaten a pea grown in Tasmania.

Simplot processes lots of vegetables picked fresh on Tasmanian farms and snap frozen for the best flavour and nutrients.

You might know frozen veggie brands Birdseye and Edgell but Tasmanian peas are in the supermarkets' private label brands Four Farms and Bell Farms too.

If you wander along the freezer aisle and look at all the different packets, I can tell you there is a lot of Tasmania produce in there but that might not be the case for long.

The Four Farms and Bell Farms brands sell for about a half of the price of the supermarkets' other home brand pea products because they are a phantom pea.

'Phantom' comes from Tasmania's own retail expert Dr Louise Grimmer, who uses it to describe brands where it is not clear they are actually owned by the supermarkets.

These phantom peas have become very popular during a cost-of-living crisis because shoppers know the produce is good and it costs less.

But another crisis is looming, and this one bites the farmers.

Coles has slashed its pea contract with Tasmanian growers.

Instead of buying 100 per cent local for its own brands, Coles is looking to source peas from outside Tasmania—actually, outside Australia altogether.

So the company that made $1.1 billion in profit last year feels the need to save a bit of money by shafting growers.

Tasmanian pea growers are now working out which other crops they should grow to make up the shortfall.

It probably impacts Simplot too because Simplot is the only frozen pea producer in Australia.

Thankfully, TasFarmers has a growing negotiating committee that works with Simplot to set price and crop area for all producers based on demand.

But really, what we're talking about here is just another way the supermarkets are ripping us off, and I bet the kids in the gallery don't like peas.