Australians have been warned to expect the price of tomatos and capsicums to rise after Cyclone Debbie smashed the "food bowl of the north" around Bowen on the Queensland central coast, destroying winter crops.
The region provides about 95 per cent of Australia's winter supply of tomatoes and capsicums, which were due for picking in late May, according to Queensland Farmers Federation project manager Ross Henry. He said any crops in the ground would have been destroyed.
Queenslanders start the massive clean up of the devastation left by the tropical cyclone, which ravaged costal towns on Tuesday night, ripping of roofs, bringing down powerlines and cutting off roads around Bowen, Airlie Beach and Proserpine.
"The Bowen region is quite pivotal for Australia's production of tomatoes and capsicum at this time of year, so there's going to be some shortages," Mr Henry said.
"We're definitely likely to see price rises."
Australia's supermarket giants were assessing the impact on supply and prices. Coles said there was "likely to be a delay in the season for produce grown in the area which may affect availability", but it did not anticipate a large impact on prices at this stage. Woolworths said it would work with suppliers to mitigate the impact.
Farmers in the Bowen area, which mayor Andrew Willcox described as a looking like a "war zone", produce about $425 million of food every year and would have also lost beans, peas, eggplant, pumpkin and zucchini grown for the Queensland market, Mr Henry said.
Mr Henry said concern was now shifting to grain, livestock and cotton producers in inland areas around Emerald that are subject to flood warnings.
Cherry Emerick, from the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association, said growers were still assessing the full extent of the damage to crops and infrastructure on Wednesday.
"It's more than likely there's been some damage to infrastructure, damage to packing sheds, and I'd say definitely to crop as well," she said.
Ms Emerick said growers would be hoping for wind to dry out their land enough for them to get a second crop of plants, currently in nurseries, in the ground in time for picking season.
Mr Henry said horticulture and sugarcane growers could not take out insurance on their crops, meaning they would face a significant financial hit in the wake of the cyclone.
Bowen is the home of the Kensington Pride mango, the most widely grown variety in Australia, and a major supplier of the fruit to supermarkets and greengrocers.
This season's crop has already been harvested however, heading to market in late November and December.
Grower Jonathan Freeman, who has 155 hectares of mango tree across three farms around Bowen, said he had not been able to get around his properties to assess the damage but was feeling optimistic.
"We know we lost some trees but at the moment we don't think it's too bad. We're just watching out for some flooding," he told Fairfax Media.
"Mango trees are very resilient. All the palm trees get smashed and the other indigenous trees get smashed but mango trees are very strong."
Banana prices skyrocketed after crops were destroyed when Cyclone Yasi hit Queensland in 2011, but the key growing area in the state's north had escaped Debbie's path, a spokeswoman for the Australian Banana Growers' Council said.
The council did not expect any market impact on bananas, but was concerned the trail of destruction could disrupt road transport of the fruit south.
The affected region is not a major producer of avocados, with production of that fruit also centred further north, Ms Emerick said.
with AAP
