Australia’s agricultural production value has continued its rise to a record-breaking $56 billion, according to Agricultural Census data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
ABS director of environment and agricultural statistics Lauren Binns attributes the rise by $3.1 billion to $56 billion during the 2015-16 year to the increased value of livestock products.
“The value of Australia’s livestock disposals continues to increase, up 10 per cent to $20.6 billion compared to 2014-15,” Binns says. “Beef was again the largest contributor to this rise, despite fewer animals heading to the saleyards, with strong price rises both domestically and internationally.”
Much of this growth was driven by Queensland, which saw an increase of 12 percent increase also on the back of livestock.
The Agricultural Census also showed the most valuable crop types were wheat at $6.2 billion, fruit, nuts and grapes at $5.6 billion and vegetables at $3.6 billion.
Despite this many crops have seen decreases in production value, Binn says.
“Nationally, the gross value of broadacre crops decreased by 4.8 per cent to $15.4 billion,” she says. “Most states recorded decreases, with Victoria and South Australia in particular down 28.5 per cent and 22.8 per cent respectively.”
Broadacre cropping saw a gross value decrease of 4.8 percent during to 2015-16 year, with Australia’s best producing crop, wheat, dropping by 12.1 percent.
Data was collected from an estimated 104,000 businesses ranging from broadacre farming and cattle and beef production to vineyards.
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Courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Statistics
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