The meeting follows weeks of calls by producers for some action to be taken against the perceived duopoly within Australia’s retail sector.

WA producers have had enough of consistently receiving significantly less than their eastern states’ counterparts have received, particularly in the beef sector.

Karridale, WA, cattle producer Gary Buller has been one of the main drivers in getting some sort of producer forum in place to try to put pressure on the supermarkets to pay more at the farm gate for beef.

“The average price for cows across Australia last week was 118c/kg, including WA,” he said.

“If you take WA out, it goes up to 125c/kg, dressed for cows.

“Three weeks ago, we were getting 82c - 93c for cows and last week good cows were selling for 56c, or $228 per head.

“You cannot even buy a tonne of super for that”

He said producers want answers to why WA prices are so far behind those of the eastern states.

The forum will be used to develop a plan to get the answers.

“The eastern seaboard is in the grip of one of its worst droughts ever and even with cattle flooding their marke, they are getting more per kilogram than we are,” Mr Buller said.

“We need to find out why there is a discrepancy.

“Surely that type of beef all goes to the same global market.”

SOURCE: Breaking news from Farm Weekly, WA, updated daily on FarmOnline.