Agricultural Value in Livingstone Shire Council almost doubles in 5 years!

16 August 2022 / Agriculture

Within the Capricorn Coast and agricultural regions of the Livingstone Shire, local farmers are growing not only their crops and livestock, they are also growing the value of what is produced.

Australia’s Agricultural Census provides insights on the role of agriculture and its contribution to life in Australia and has been conducted in 2015-16 and 2020-21. Total agricultural production gross value for the Livingstone Shire has almost doubled between the two Census periods, increasing from $88 million in 2015-16 to $171.8 million in 2020-21, or 95.2 percent.

While there are always seasonal influences on agricultural production, the latest Agricultural Census has highlighted local growth areas.

More than three-quarters of total agricultural production in the region continues to come from livestock, predominantly cattle and calves (77.6%). Many graziers have used the improved seasonal conditions and better pastures to rebuild their cattle and calves stocks. While the value of cattle and calves livestock disposals across Australia did not significantly change during this period ($13,086.8M in 2015-16 to $13,465.4M in 2020-21), local graziers were able to increase production from $68.6M by 94.3 percent to $133.3M in 2020-21.

Local fruit which represents approximately one-tenth of total production (9.6%) has more than doubled in value from $7.9M to $16.5M in the latest Agricultural Census results. While major crop, pineapple, production increased in value from $6.1M to $10.2M in this time period, it was not the only bumper crop with avocados also increasing more than 10-fold in value from $0.1M to $1.5M over the time period.

Nurseries, cut flowers and cultivated turf are also an outstanding example of the growth potential of our agricultural industry. From a small proportion (2.3%) of our total production in 2015-16, this category doubled its contribution to 4.7 percent of production in 2020-21, while increasing its value from $2M to $8M.

The number of agricultural businesses across the region has grown and there has been an increase in the number of businesses reporting a turnover of greater than $500,000. This is likely to be due to improving seasonal conditions and strong demand with bumper grains crops and elevated livestock prices.

“We have been working with several local growers and producers across the Capricorn Coast across the past 12 months through Taste Capricorn Coast,” Mary said.

“Taste Capricorn Coast was launched in 2021 to support local farmers following the bushfires which ravaged parts of the region in 2019/20.”

“Considering the heavy impacts and business challenges faced by many agriculturalists following this natural disaster and Covid disruptions, these results show growing agricultural success in our region.”

Visit Taste Capricorn Coast for more information on our local producers, eateries, retail outlets, markets and farm experiences across the destination.