New data shows mixed fortunes for an Australian horticulture sector facing numerous challenges; however, the long-term outlook remains strong with total production value increasing by 2.8 per cent to $16.3 billion.
The latest edition of the Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook, developed by Freshlogic on behalf of Hort Innovation, was released today and includes information on 75 different horticulture categories across fruit, vegetables, nuts, and greenlife.
Hort Innovation chief executive officer Brett Fifield says the result reflected the resilience of Australian horticulture.
“The value of the horticulture sector grew by $434.3 million over the past year, demonstrating the hard work and passion that our industry has for growing high-quality fresh produce that feeds not only Australians but consumers across the world,” he says.
“Growers have faced myriad challenges in the past few years, including adverse weather events, higher production costs and labour shortages, that have affected profitability.”
“Hort Innovation continues to support the horticulture sector by investing in research and development, marketing and trade to build a prosperous and sustainable future for growers.”
The Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook is released by Hort Innovation each February and captures the previous financial year’s data. The user-friendly guide includes figures on national and state-level production values and volumes, exports and imports, processing volumes, fresh supply, retail and food service distribution.
More data and insights from the 2022/23 Handbook include:
•    Total production value of Australian horticulture in 2022/23 increased by $434.3 million (2.8 per cent) to $16.3 billion. The rising value was driven by significant value increases in the fruit and vegetable categories – which increased 12.6 per cent and 5.4 per cent respectively.
•    It was a strong year for fruit value (increasing $708.1 million) with volume increasing marginally. Growing farmgate production value for fruit value was driven by large increases in production values for avocados (increasing $196.9 million), table grapes (increasing $196.4 million), bananas (increasing $81.7 million), apples (increasing $78.4 million) and cherries (increasing $36.1 million).
•    Solid values for the vegetable industries have been achieved for another year. Overall vegetable production values reached a high of $5.83 billion, increasing 5.4 per cent on 2021/22. While value increased, vegetable production volume dropped again in 2022/23 by 3.2 per cent, making 2022/23 the lowest year for production volume in six years.
•    Overall nuts ended the 2022/23 year considerably weaker – decreasing by 42 per cent, or down $527 million on 2021/22, to reach $721.1 million. Volume also softened but at a lesser rate (23.7 per cent).
•    The total value of fresh horticulture exports decreased by 3.4 per cent in 2022/23 to $2.54 billion. Fruit export value increased 6.3 per cent on the previous year, while vegetable export values remained relatively stable dropping just one per cent and nut export value experienced a 15 per cent decrease.
•    Of the fruits, table grapes and avocados saw the highest year-on-year growth in export values, which increased 28 per cent and 13 per cent respectively on 2021/22 levels. Nursery, onions, potatoes, strawberries, and watermelon export values all increased in 2022/23, with nursery and potatoes reaching their highest recorded export values.
The full Handbook (PDF and online tool) is available at www.horticulture.com.au/hort-stats-handbook.