This publication marks the first release of agricultural statistics produced using new methods and data sources.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is modernising the way official agricultural statistics are produced to better support Australian agriculture. New data sources will support 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.
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 respondent burden on farmers and created greater consistency between existing data sources which helps to build trust in the statistics.
ABS Horticulture statistics are being produced to align with horticulture statistics from the Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook which is published annually by Hort Innovation, the research and development corporation for the horticulture industry. Australian and state/territory production and value statistics in this publication are sourced from the handbook (with the exception of wine grapes).
The ABS has developed an experimental method to produce regional production, value, area and business count statistics that complement and are consistent with the national production and value figures produced by Hort Innovation. These statistics use additional crop mapping and industry data and have been produced for avocados and macadamias in this release. The intention is to incrementally expand this approach to a broader range of horticultural commodities in future releases.
For further information on the methods and data sources used to produce the statistics in this publication please see the Methodology section.