MEDIA RELEASE
13 December 2012	Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	210/2012

The dollar value of the 2010-11 rice and cotton harvest was more than double the previous year, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

Helen Baird, Director of Rural Environment and Agriculture Statistics at the ABS, said that the 2011 Agriculture Census showed that the gross value of irrigated agricultural production increased by $1.4 billion, up 12 per cent on the 2009-10 results.

"Three irrigated commodities - vegetables, fruit and dairy - made up more than half the value of this years production," said Ms Baird, "vegetables made $2.9 billion, while fruit and dairy came in at $2.5 billion each. Combined, these three commodities accounted for $7.9 billion of the $12.9 billion national figure."

Increases were recorded in most states and territories, with New South Wales recording the highest increase at $720 million (up 33 per cent to $2.9 billion), followed by Victoria with an increase of $607 million (up 19 per cent to $3.9 billion) and South Australia with an increase of $52 million (up 4 per cent to $1.4 billion).

Two states recorded falls in the value of irrigated commodity production - Queensland by $25 million (down one per cent to $3.2 billion) and Tasmania, $46 million (down seven per cent to $626 million).

"The Murray Darling Basin region - at $5.9 billion - represented nearly half the national total for irrigated commodities," said Ms Baird, "with the main irrigated commodities being cotton at $1.5 billion, fruit at $1.3 billion and dairy production at $836 million."

"Increases in cotton were due to increases in production, prices and irrigation", said Ms Baird. "Dairy increased due to an increase in the price of milk, and fruit was up due to more water available for fruit trees, increasing the yield.

"Commodities with the highest proportion of value for irrigated production in the Murray Darling Basin were rice, grapes, fruit and vegetables."

Further details are in Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production, 2010-11 (cat.no.4610.0.55.008) which is available for free download from the ABS website (www.abs.gov.au).

Commodity	Gross Value of Irrigated Agricultural Production	Change since 2009-10
	$million	%
Hay	111.9	-42
Cereals for grain	159.5	11
Rice	173.6	93
Cotton	1,566.2	136
Sugar cane	374.2	-50
Other broad acre crops	86.4	-25
Fruit	2,522.9	13
Grapes	928.6	-13
Vegetables	2,878.1	21
Nursery production	908.6	-12
Dairy production	2,143.3	17
Production from meat cattle	589.9	-2
Production from sheep and other livestock	475.3	4