Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia

The gross value for Australian agriculture increased slightly to $61 billion in 2019-20 despite drought conditions.

The total gross value of crops decreased by 5% to $28 billion due to a large fall in the value of cereal and broadacre crops, particularly wheat. Drought conditions impacted broadacre crops in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. Results were mixed for horticultural crops.

Key crop results for 2019-20:

• $5.4 billion for fruit and nuts (up 9% from 2018-19)
• $4.9 billion for wheat (down 20%)
• $4.2 billion for vegetables (down 4%)
• $3.0 billion for barley (steady)
• $2.5 billion for hay (up 24%)
• $1.4 billion for canola (up 1%)
• $252 million for cotton (down 78%)

The gross value of livestock and livestock products rose by 5% to $32 billion, following increases in livestock slaughter and disposals in response to drought conditions and growing global demand for Australian protein.

Key livestock results for 2019-20:

• $14.6 billion for cattle and calves (up 14% from 2018-19)
• $4.8 billion for sheep and lambs (up 16%)
• $2.8 billion for poultry (up 2%)
• $1.5 billion for pigs (up 24%)
• $8.5 billion for livestock products such as wool, milk and eggs (down 12%)

Impacts of drought are evident in agricultural activity estimates for the 2019-20 reference year across a number of the ABS' agricultural collections, including Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced. Many farming areas across Australia experienced drought throughout the reference period, with New South Wales and Queensland particularly impacted. In addition, the impact on estimates from the bushfire activity in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland in early 2020 and flooding experienced in parts of New South Wales and Queensland are varied, with some respondents reporting impacts on their agricultural activity from these events.

There are no significant impacts on the 2019-20 estimates from the COVID-19 pandemic. The ABS is continuing to monitor potential impacts from natural disasters and COVID-19 across its agricultural collections for the 2019-20 reference year and beyond. For more information on the expected economic impacts of the Bushfire and COVID-19, please see the ABS Chief Economist Series paper Measuring natural disasters in the Australian economy.

The Rural Environment and Agricultural Commodities Survey (REACS) is a major input into the ABS' Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced (VACP) collection. Changes implemented to the content of the REACS have an impact on the data items produced from the VACP collection. For example, where production for an agricultural commodity is not collected by the REACS, it may not be produced by the VACP collection.

A number of changes to the 2019-20 REACS content were implemented, with some impact on the range of data items produced from the 2019-20 VACP collection. To assist with comparing VACP estimates published since 2015-16, a data item listing is available for download from the "Data downloads" section of this publication.

For 2020-21, the Agricultural Census will take the place of the REACS as a major input into the VACP collection. Further information on the data items being collected on the 2020-21 Agricultural Census and plans of how and when data will be released can be found in 2020-21 Agricultural Census Topics and Data Release Plan.

Estimates of the value of agricultural commodities for substate regions are available for download from the "Data downloads" section of this publication. While these regional estimates may be fit for purpose to inform some decision making, it is noted that the methodology used to produce these estimates was not designed with this level of disaggregated output in mind. Price information is collected at a state and territory level and applied to substate levels which may not be reflective of prices in regional Australia. Further information can be found in the "Methodology" section of this publication.

The demand for regional value data for agricultural commodities is to be confirmed for the 2020-21 reference period. More information on the data release plan from the ABS' suite of agricultural statistics for 2020-21 can be found in the information paper 2020-21 Agricultural Census Topics and Data Release Plan.

This release previously used catalogue number 7503.0.