Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is modernising the way official agricultural statistics are produced to better support Australian agriculture. New data sources are supporting improved regional detail on an annual basis. This helps to understand impacts from biosecurity and climate risks as well as supply chain and infrastructure requirements and supports decision making by governments, industry, and farmers.

These changes were outlined in early 2023 in Modernising ABS Agriculture Statistics which explained why the ABS is modernising its Agriculture Statistics Program and the guiding principles being followed. The first iteration of statistics produced using new data sources and methods was release in June 2024 for broadacre crops, horticulture and livestock:

• Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops, 2022-23 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Australian Agriculture: Horticulture, 2022-23 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics
• Australian Agriculture: Livestock, 2022-23 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics

A further update was provided with the release of Modernising agricultural statistics: Update on achievements and remaining data gaps | Australian Bureau of Statistics in October 2024 to highlight the achievements of the agriculture statistics modernisation program and to outline remaining data gaps and progress towards addressing them. One focus of this continuing development work is the creation of estimates of total broadacre production to estimate that part of production not captured through the levy system. This work also involves the development of estimates for some of the smaller broadacre crops.

A key part of the modernisation has been the development of partnerships with industry and government to identify new data sources and develop new statistical methods. This has reduced reporting burden on farmers and created greater consistency between existing data sources which helps to build trust in the statistics.

ABS broadacre crop statistics are produced using a combination of Levy Payer Register data and satellite derived crop mapping. This data has enabled detailed regional Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) statistics to be produced, and these can be accessed through Data Explorer.

For further information on the methods and data sources used to produce the statistics contained in this publication please see the Methodology section.

The amount of winter broadacre crops sold decreased to 50.0 million tonnes in 2023-24, falling by 18.6 million tonnes from the strong results reported in 2022-23. The local value for winter broadacre crops decreased by $7.7 billion to $18.7 billion, a decrease of 29 per cent. Winter crops covered 20.5 million hectares, 13 per cent less than in 2022-23. Wheat, barley and canola remain the 3 largest crops in terms of local value, combining to account for $16.5 billion or 88 per cent of total winter crop local value for production sold. Wheat comprised 56% of total winter crop production sold with 28.0 million tonnes, the highest for all winter crops.

In 2023-24:

• 28.0 million tonnes of wheat were sold in Australia, 32 per cent less than in 2022-23
• $8.8 billion of wheat were sold, a decrease of $4.7 billion
• 10.5 million hectares of wheat were grown, a decrease of 2.4 million hectares
• Businesses selling wheat reduced by 13 per cent to 19,800

Western Australia produced the largest amount of levied wheat with 8.5 million tonnes sold, 6.2 million tonnes less than in 2022-23. New South Wales was a close second with 8.4 million tonnes, down 2.8 million tonnes. These two states combined accounted for 60 per cent of Australia's total levied wheat production.

Esperance Surrounds Statistical Area 2 (SA2) in Western Australia was the highest wheat producing region in 2023-24 with 1.0 million tonnes sold, 25 per cent lower than the 2022-23 amount. Six of the top ten SA2 regions for wheat production were in Western Australia. The Victorian SA2 of Yarriambiack rounded out the top ten, no Victorian regions made the top ten in 2022-23.  The top eight SA2s in 2023-24 sold less production when compared to the previous year.

The interactive map below shows the distribution of levied wheat production across Australia.

Areas can be selected to view the underlying data. All data can be found in the Data downloads section of this publication.

In 2023-24:

• 7.5 million tonnes of canola were sold in Australia, 1.4 million tonnes fewer than in 2022-23
• $4.5 billion of canola were sold, a decrease of $2.1 billion
• 3.7 million hectares of canola were grown, a decrease of 641 thousand hectares
• Businesses selling canola reduced by 6 per cent to 11,095

Western Australia was the largest canola producing state with 3.1 million tonnes sold, accounting for 41 per cent of total national production sold. Victoria was the only state to produce more levied tonnes of canola in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23, with a 14 per cent increase. New South Wales was the second largest canola producing state, with 2.0 million tonnes sold, closely followed by Victoria with 1.8 million tonnes of canola sold. Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria combined accounted for 91% of the total canola sold, the same proportion these states represented in 2022-23.

Esperance Surrounds (WA) was the highest canola producing SA2 nationally again in 2023-24, with 464,000 tonnes sold. However, all of the top ten SA2 regions sold less canola in 2023-24 than in the previous year. Seven of the top ten regions for canola production sold were in Western Australia, 1 less than the previous year. The remaining SA2 regions in the top ten were in New South Wales, 1 more than in 2022-23.

In 2023-24:

• 11.0 million tonnes of barley were sold in Australia, 2.5 million tonnes less than in 2022-23
• $3.2 billion of barley were sold, a decrease of $579 million
• 4.0 million hectares of barley were grown, an increase of 193 thousand hectares
• Businesses selling barley reduced by 8 per cent to 12,440 businesses

Western Australia was the largest barley producing state with 4.2 million tonnes sold however, this was a decrease of 1.5 million tonnes from 2022-23. The remaining states sold less barley in 2023-24 except for Victoria and Tasmania. Victoria reported an increase in the amount of barley sold from the previous year, selling 14 per cent more than in 2022-23, while Tasmania remained relatively unchanged from the previous year. 

Five of the top ten Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions for barley production were in Western Australia with the other five in Victoria. Kulin (WA) was the highest barley producing SA2 nationally again, with 1.1 million tonnes sold, more than double that of Buloke (VIC) the next highest SA2 region with 499 thousand tonnes sold. 

In 2023-24:

• 29.9 million tonnes of sugarcane were sold in Australia, 2.7 million tonnes less than in 2022-23
• $2.2 billion of sugarcane were sold, an increase of $692 million
• 341 thousand hectares of sugarcane were grown an increase of 10 thousand hectares
• Businesses selling sugarcane decreased by 4 per cent to 3,640 businesses

The amount of sugarcane production in Queensland decreased by 2.6 million tonnes to 28.6 million tonnes sold. Queensland accounted for 96% of the country's sugarcane production and 86% of Australia’s sugarcane producing businesses with 3,140. The number of levy paying businesses selling sugarcane in Queensland remained relatively unchanged with 3,140 businesses or 2 per cent less than in 2022-23.

Burdekin (Qld) remains the largest sugarcane producing SA2 region, with 7.8 million tonnes sold, 241 thousand tonnes more than in 2022-23. Bundaberg Surrounds (QLD) has replaced Babinda (QLD) in the top ten sugarcane producing SA2 regions, representing the only change from 2022-23.

Agricultural levy data is combined with satellite crop mapping to produce SA2 estimates of production, value, area, and number of businesses. For more detail refer to the methodology section.

Levy payer register data is reported from the first point of sale and comprehensively captures the ‘value of grain sold or used in commercial production’. A corresponding measure of tonnes is also reported in this data. This coverage supports the improved regional detail in this publication. In the case of sugarcane and rice, the levy is paid on tonnage and only tonnage data is available from levy payer register data and additional industry data is required to estimate value.

It is important to highlight that production tonnages and local value are based on what was sold through the levy system. The levy payer register data does not capture production or value of crops produced for hay, silage or used on-farm for purposes such as livestock feed. Most crops are primarily sold through the levy system however both oats and sorghum have significant production amounts used on farm. This means that total value, production, and business count data will be lower than total production. This difference is important to note when making comparisons with past ABS data. The ABS is continuing work to develop a method to estimate total production for these crops.

The satellite derived crop mapping data captures the entire area of crops planted regardless of their final use.

For more detail refer to the methodology section.

Regional statistics for broadacre crops are available through Data Explorer.

Link to Data Explorer: Broadacre crops, 2023-24 by Australia, states and territories and by Statistical Area 2

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

This release is the first under the new staggered release approach flagged in Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops, 2022-23 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics. The new staggered approach will ensure that ABS agriculture statistics are released as close to the reference period as possible. This release includes statistics for winter broadacre crops and sugarcane for the 2023-24 financial year. 2023-24 Summer broadacre statistics will be added to this release in May 2025, Livestock and horticulture estimates will be released in June 2025.

The ABS would like to thank the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Digital Agriculture Services, Queensland Department of Environment and Science and the Australian Sugar Milling Council for providing the data required to produce the estimates presented in this release. Thank you to the many individuals and organisations who contributed to developing the method used to produce these estimates without the need to survey farmers.

25/02/2025 - This updated release corrects errors identified on 25 February 2025 in the graph titled "Winter broadacre crops - Production sold by year". Total production for barley was corrected. This is also reflected in the Media Release. The graph titled “Barley production sold - Top 10 Statistical Area 2 regions, 2023-24” production for the Nhill Region in (VIC) was corrected’. No other figures were affected.