1 Aug 2024
Last week the Queensland Government released the latest iteration of its AgTrends data series, projecting the agriculture sector to reach its second highest ever valuation of $23.56 billion in 2024-25.
This year’s value reflects the sector’s economic significance to regional communities after a dip in value in 2023-24, following year-on-year record valuations, due to challenging weather conditions including flooding and severe storm events in some regions.
Sugarcane and sugar processing, along with horticultural commodities ranked as the highest growing commodities by value in 2023-24, with macadamias surging to an 86.3% increase in value.
Cane and horticulture growing regions in North Queensland including Hitchinbrook, Douglas, Mackay, Burdekin and Cairns rank as the top five highest growing regions by Gross Value of Production (GVP) in 2023-24, despite significant flooding and severe storms over the summer, including Tropical Cyclones Jasper and Kirrily.
The highest GVP regions overall were Toowoomba, Western Downs, Bundaberg, Burdekin and the Cassowary Coast.
As is always the case with statistics, these GVP numbers alone only tell half the story.
While the total value of Queensland agricultural production continues to trend upwards overtime, so to do farm input costs across the board. And as we’ve seen throughout the ongoing supermarket enquiry process, these costs are continuing to squeeze the already thin margins of many farmers.
In Queensland’s Lockyer Valley and other regions across the state and country, such as the Murray Darling Basin, we’ve also seen a shift away from some staple food crops due to government policy on water allocation and natural disaster support, as well as increasingly high insurance premiums.
While these decisions are never easy for a farmer to make, and are ultimately guided by market forces, policymakers should be thinking hard about what impact these shifts will have on Australia’s long term food security, and the variety in our diets.
We need appropriate policies in place to support the future of food and fibre production so that future generations have the same access to high-quality, affordable and nutritious Australian grown produce that we have been so lucky to enjoy.
The post AgTrends 2024-25: Looking beyond the headline numbers appeared first on Queensland Farmers' Federation.