Australia predicts record farm production despite challenges

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia is forecast to reap record farm revenues this year despite pandemic challenges, a mouse plague and a trade dispute with China.

Australian farmers are expected to sell 73 billion Australian dollars ($54 billion) in produce in the current fiscal year that started in July thanks to favorable weather and grain prices inflated by drought in the United States and Canada, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Agriculture Department’s research branch.

That compares with AU$66 billion ($49 billion) earned in 2020-21. That was also a good year for agriculture that followed a prolonged, crippling drought and devastating wildfires across southeast Australia.

The latest forecast is the first time the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences has forecast a return exceeding AU$70 billion ($51 billion).

The biggest contribution to growth in agricultural exports would be crops, which are forecast to rise by 17% to AU$30 billion ($22 billion).

A mouse plague across much of the eastern Australian cropping land reduced grain and hay production toward the end of the last fiscal year.

With bumper crops of wheat, barley and canola ready to be harvested soon, there are concerns about how many mice survived the Southern Hemisphere winter and how big the mouse population might grow to this year.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said a lack of seasonal workers caused by COVID-19 restrictions was a bigger threat to a successful harvest.

“That’s the biggest constraint we’re seeing on agriculture as we move forward,” Littleproud told Australian Broadcasting Corp., referring to labor shortages.

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