Victoria's peak farming lobby group has joined forces with Fruit Growers Victoria and Food and Fibre Gippsland to directly procure rapid antigen tests for their members.
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VFF president Emma Germano said expressions of interest in procuring tests closed at 4:30pm Wednesday.
"In the interests of minimising the disruption to our food supply chain, Food and Fibre Gippsland, Fruit Growers Victoria and the Victorian Farmers Federation are working together to secure up to 100,000 Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs)," the groups said on social media.
Ms Germano said it had been made "abundantly clear" that the agricultural sector would not be prioritised by the Victorian government in its supply of RATs.
"We have heaps of members and farmers calling us saying they would love to be able to use the new isolation directives, but there is no availability of RATs anywhere," Ms Germano said.
"To gain an understanding of the demand we thought we were only going to work this out if we tried to procure the RATs ourselves."
The state government has ordered 44 million RATs, to distribute to key workers.
The government said workers in sensitive settings and essential workforces would be prioritised to receive the RATs, as part of the initial rollout.
This includes essential workers in the health system, emergency services, and disability and aged care services.
Under new national definitions, introduced earlier this month, a person is considered a close contact if he or she has spent four hours or more with a confirmed case in a household or household-like setting, such as a residential care facility.
A positive RAT has the same status as that of a PCR test.
Ms Germano said the group would "order as many tests as have been ordered from us.
"We hope to distribute them, if everything goes according to plan, next week."
She said before opening up the call for expressions of interests, 25,000 tests had already been ordered by VFF members alone.
She remained sceptical about government claims it was not requisitioning RAT cassettes, being brought into the country by private industry.
"There is a lot of evidence to the contrary, " Ms Germano said.
The government has said widespread reporting that supplies of kits being redirected to the Commonwealth Department of Health are untrue.
The Department of Health reaffirmed it had requisitioned all RAT supplies within and entering Australia.
The Department had made purchases in accordance with Commonwealth Procurement Rules, and had not sought to place itself ahead of other commercial and retail entities.
The Australian Government had secured more than 80 million RATs for delivery in January and February. State and territory governments also advised that they have placed orders for approximately 130 million RATs.
Ms Germano said the arrival of the tests would give the VFF a better understanding as to how they would flow through the supply chain, before being distributed.
"We will literally get in the VFF utes and cars and distribute them throughout Victoria," she said.
Members from all sectors of agriculture were calling for the test.
"It's been all different types of growers who have been calling us and telling us about how they have really struggled."
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
