Key broadacre crops hit a value of more than $28.9 billion in the 2022-23 financial year, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Rob Walter, ABS head of agriculture statistics, said: “It was a bumper year for wheat and canola in particular, with 41.2 million tonnes of wheat sold worth $13.5 billion and 8.9 million tonnes of canola sold worth $6.6 billion.”
Horticulture crops (including wine grapes) had a combined local value of $17.2 billion. Fruit was the largest contributor to this, with a local value of $7.3 billion, followed by vegetables with a local value of $5.8 billion.
The value of livestock disposals declined one percent to $23.3 billion in 2022-23. Cattle was the largest contributor at $13.9 billion, a drop of 2.4 percent, while poultry bucked the trend, increasing by 15.6 percent to $3.6 billion.
At 30 June 2023, there were 29.9 million head of cattle, a 4 percent increase from the previous year.
“This is the largest cattle herd in the past five years as rainfall and favourable conditions supported farmers rebuilding their herds,” Mr Walter said.
Modernising ABS agriculture statistics delivers new regional insights
The ABS is modernising our agriculture statistics by making greater use of existing data sources.
These sources, including satellite-derived crop mapping and administrative levy payer data, support greater regional detail, which highlights the regions behind Australian agriculture. For example, the data showed that Morawa in Western Australia had the highest wheat production at 2.1 million tonnes.
Western Australia also had the highest canola and barley-producing regions, with Esperance Surrounds producing 538,000 tonnes of canola and Kulin producing 1.4 million tonnes of barley in 2022-23.
“This regional detail was also available for some horticulture statistics and showed that Bundaberg was Australia’s avocado and macadamia capital in 2022-23,” Mr Walter said.
One in every five avocados (19 per cent) was grown in Bundaberg Surrounds (South), which produced 21.5 thousand tonnes of avocados. In contrast, Bundaberg Surrounds (North) produced 11 thousand tonnes of macadamias (23 per cent of total Australian production).
