Australian Agriculture: Horticulture

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.

Horticultural crop estimates are reproduced courtesy of Hort Innovation Australia.

Fruit:

• The local value of Australian table grapes was $918.6 million, with 233,000 tonnes sold 
• Apples had a local value of $647.0 million with 285,200 tonnes sold
• Bananas had a local value of $583.3 million with 374,300 tonnes sold.

Vegetables:

• Potatoes had a local value of $1.0 billion nationally with 1.5 million tonnes sold
• Leafy salad vegetables had a local value of $736.5 million with 75,700 tonnes sold
• Tomatoes had a local value of $570.6 million with 321,700 tonnes sold.

Nuts:

• Almonds had a local value of $523.4 million with 103,400 tonnes sold
• Macadamias had a local value of $104.0 million with 48,400 tonnes sold.

In 2022-23:

• Australian production was 115,400 tonnes
• Local value of crop sold was $560.7 million
• Total crop was 19,100 hectares with a bearing area of 14,200 hectares
• There were 802 avocado producing businesses.

In 2022-23, 74% of the national avocado crop area was bearing. The difference between total crop area and bearing crop area is non-bearing crop area and this reflects investments in new plantings that are yet to bear fruit.

Queensland had the largest avocado crop area with 10,800 hectares, of which 8,100 hectares (or 75%) was bearing. This was followed by Western Australia with a planting area of 4,800 hectares of which 3,300 hectares (or 69%) was bearing.

In 2022-23, Queensland was Australia’s largest avocado producing state, producing 65% (75,000 tonnes) of Australia’s avocados sold followed by Western Australia with 18% (20,800 tonnes). Feedback from the avocado industry suggests that production in Western Australia in 2022-23 was impacted by alternate bearing which effects avocado trees in this state.

In 2022-23, Queensland avocado production had a local value of $365 million followed by Western Australia with a local value of $101 million.

In 2022-23, the top three avocado producing Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions were all in Queensland: Bundaberg Surrounds - South; Atherton; and Tablelands. These three SA2s accounted for 42% of national production. Western Australia’s production is highly concentrated in the south west of the state, with Pemberton and Manjimup accounting for 77% of that state’s production and 14% of national production.

The interactive map below shows the location of avocado 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 2022-23:

• Australian production was 48,400 tonnes
• Local value was $104 million
• Total crop area was 40,800 hectares
• The bearing area was 24,300 hectares.

In 2022-23, 60% of the national macadamia crop area was bearing. Queensland had the largest planting area 24,700 hectares, of which only 11,500 hectares (or 46%) was bearing. This reflects that there is a significant area of younger plantings in Queensland. New South Wales has the second largest planting area with 16,000 hectares of which 12,800 hectares (or 80%) was bearing.

In 2022-23, Queensland produced 70% (34,100 tonnes) of Australia’s macadamias followed by New South Wales with 29% (14,200 tonnes). 

In 2022-23, Queensland macadamia production had a local value of $73 million, followed by New South Wales with a local value of $31 million. 

Queensland's production is highly concentrated in the Bundaberg region. In 2022-23 the two largest Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions were Bundaberg Surrounds (North and South), which accounted for 44% of national production sold. In New South Wales, Lismore Surrounds and the adjacent Ballina Surrounds were the largest producing SA2s, accounting for 21% of national production.

These experimental regional horticulture estimates align with the national production and value statistics published by Hort Innovation. These statistics have been modelled to smaller regions using a combination of regional production, value, yield and bearing area data from Industry. This data is combined with tree crop mapping produced by the Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre to provide the additional regional detail about the area and locations where different crops are grown. The intention is to incrementally apply this approach to additional crops as data becomes available in future years. For more detail refer to the methodology section.

The data presented in this release improves location accuracy and regional detail for ABS horticulture statistics. The tree crop mapping data used to produce these estimates identifies selected horticulture crops with an improved level of geographic accuracy compared to the address information from survey data. In addition, the tree crop mapping and industry data reflect the area, production and value of the entire industry compared to a small sample of businesses included in the survey. This broader coverage supports the production of more accurate statistics for smaller regional areas such as SA2s. For more detail refer to the methodology section.

The maps in the following link show avocado and macadamia production, value, and area statistics on SA2 regions. The SA2 regions can be selected to view the underlying data. Regional data used in these maps is available through the Data Explorer link in the Data downloads section of this publication.

Australian Agriculture: Horticulture, 2022-23, by SA2

Regional statistics for avocados and macadamias are available through Data Explorer.

Link to Data Explorer: Avocado and macadamia crops, 2022-23 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 publication, along with Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops and Australian Agriculture: Livestock, have replaced the now discontinued Agricultural Commodities, Australia, and Value of Agriculture Commodities Produced, Australia.

While all three Australian Agriculture releases will be published together for 2022-23 estimates, subsequent issues will be staggered to facilitate more timely release of data. The first update for 2023-24 estimates is expected to be for Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops which will include sugarcane estimates in the second half of 2024. The next release of Australian Agriculture: Horticulture will be in the first half of 2025.

The ABS would like to thank Hort Innovation, Avocados Australia, the Australian Macadamia Society and the Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre at the University of New England for providing the data required to produce the estimates presented in this release. Also, 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.