CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
Australian grain growers are this week watching US President Trump’s every move with baited breath. Every tweet and every press conference.
The wildly unpredictable manner in which Trump conducts international diplomacy has scared the Australian agricultural sector for many years – but sometimes it can work in their favour.
This is unlike the bitter pandemic years, when Donald Trump stitched up the then Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to publicly demand an official inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 – a brain-snap that resulted in China crushing all Aussie exports from wine to beef.
However, years later, the China-Australia hostilities appear to have thawed – and Australia is now just playing fast and loose – hoping to pick up any loose balls that have popped out the side of the ruck.
Right now, Trump’s impulsive vitriol towards just about any country that isn’t America could very well result in some brand new marble kitchens on chickpea farms right around Australia.
Local chickpea grower, Jim ‘Hooley’ Dooley (50) says he’s currently splitting his time between his extremely advanced agribusiness tech, and Trump’s twitter page.
“It could pop off any minute” says Hooley, as he monitors his harvest via drone.
“If he stirs up India. And they bite. It’s all over for Idaho”
Australia is the largest exporter of chickpeas, producing about one third of global exports over the past 10 years.
In the weeks leading up to his inauguration, US President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning to both India and the other members of the multi-nation trade bloc known as BRICS.
‘Go find another sucker’, he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, threatening the group’s nine members with 100 percent tariffs should they attempt to challenge the dollar’s global dominance.
Trump’s warning followed his campaign promises to place a 25 percent tariff on imported goods from Canada and Mexico on his first day in office. China, the primary target of Trump’s tariff threats, is expected to face an additional 10 percent.
As the one product that can be implemented into any diet, religous or otherwise, chickpeas are in hot demand in both the subcontinent and the Middle East.
Hooley says we just need our Prime Minister to avoid appearing in any three-way AUKUS press conferences.
