Australian winter broadacre crop production has staged a significant recovery, with the latest insights from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealing a 20% rise in total value for the 2024-25 financial year.
Local producers sold 61.1 million tonnes of crops, generating $22.5 billion in value.
"Winter crop production rose 22% in 2024-25. This increase led to a 20% rise in the value of winter crops sold, coming in at $22.5 billion dollars for local producers," said Trent Lind, ABS head of agriculture statistics.
Lind noted that roughly 2% of this reported value increase reflects the addition of faba bean and field pea statistics, published for the first time under the ABS' modernised approach.
Despite the robust growth, current figures remain below the record highs achieved in 2022-23, when 68.6 million tonnes were sold for $26.3 billion.
While wheat, barley, and canola still comprise 91% of sales, chickpeas recorded extraordinary growth, with production increasing from 0.5 million to 2.0 million tonnes.
"Local producers sold $1.7 billion worth of chickpeas in 2024-25, up from $0.4 billion in 2023-24," Lind stated, attributing the surge to ideal growing conditions and increased international demand following India’s temporary tariff suspension.
The Moree Surrounds region emerged as the highest-producing area for chickpeas and wheat.
"Area specific insights for crop production are now available as we continue to modernise our agricultural statistics program," Lind added, noting that the 733 thousand tonnes of faba beans produced is enough to make approximately 4.9 billion serves of curry.