Australian Agricultural Sector: Growth and Export Market Analysis

This report examines the growth of the Australian agricultural sector in the export market, highlighting its significant contribution to the Australian economy. In 2016-17, the sector contributed almost $50 billion in exports, with grains being a major export product. The report identifies key issues faced by the sector, including political values, environmental concerns like water security and climate change, technical challenges, and economic factors such as tariffs and currency fluctuations. It also discusses the debate around genetic modification and the importance of investing in research and development to maintain competitiveness. The report further emphasizes the role of key players like crops, horticulture, viticulture, animal products, dairy, fisheries and wool in contributing to the growth of the Australian agricultural sector.

Newspaper Report
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Topic: Growth in Australian Agricultural sector for Export market...............................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
The report is based on the growth in Australian Agricultural sector for the Export market. Today
agriculture is highly technical and sophisticated technical industry; especially in Australia, the
agriculture industry is the most efficient and innovative industries. This industry has the ability
to adopt innovation and form the successful collaboration which will be continuing to support the
strong and prosperous Australia. In the report, the discussion will be made on the economic
growth of the agriculture sector in Australia, the issues which come in the agriculture sector and
the solutions to resolve the issues. The role of policyholders is also discussed to provide a
complete understanding of the report.
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Topic: Growth in Australian Agricultural sector for Export market
The agriculture sector in Australia is the fastest grown industry which contributed almost $50
billion in 2016-17 in exports. Grains product contributed almost $10 billion in the exports, the
pulses worth were $3 billion export to the world and the agriculture sector earns $155 billion
every year. The farmers and graziers of Australia have their own 135,997 farms which cover
61% of the landmass of Australia. The main products of Australia are which are export milk,
wheat, wool, barley, sugarcane, vegetables, fruits, and nuts.
The issues which are faced by the agriculture in Australia are:
 Political values: The farmers of Australia considered that the life on land is healthier and
more productive than living in cities and towns. This was wrong with the
parliamentarian’s producer who spent the money in beautifying the city instead of
developing the interior. From the 1920s to 1970s, the goal of the promulgated is to
enhance the status of the small farmers and graziers are to justify the subsidies for them.
 Environmental, Technical and economic issues: The main issue which is faced by the
agriculture sector in Australia are of water security, weeds, drought, change of climate
due to global warming, tariffs on Australia exports in the importing countries, currency
fluctuations, subsidies to farmers in the other countries (Rickards & Howden, 2012). The
agriculture sector is the most trade-exposed sector in the Australian economy.
 Genetic modification: The grains which are irrigated from the genetic method are not
allowed in the Australia, where the grain producers called for the moratorium which has
to be lifted. The farmers argued with the GM technology are to control the weeds and
how farmers can run their enterprise and should grow the ‘premium products”. The
producers said that the GM-free product will not give high profits. The program Horizon
soil improvement has proved that the producers don’t need genetic modification
technology, they must go down to 50 cm or deeper instead of using the top five
centimeters of the soil (Gray, et. al., 2014).
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The agriculture products of Australia which are exported are wheat, which has 12.5% of total
share in agriculture exports, meat contributes 8%, vegetables contribute 4.1%, fruits and nuts
contribute 3.9%. The value of Australian agriculture export has reached new record $48.7%
billion, which was $ 1 billion higher than the previous one. In Australia, more than 307,000
people were employed in the agriculture sector.
There are some challenges which are faced by the agriculture industry. The changes in the
climate have influenced the rain duration and intensity which is not suitable for the farming in
some areas of Australia. The next challenge is the investment in the technology and
infrastructure which is the main key has to be provided but the agriculture sector will always
remain in the high risk. The industry always fails in attracting the required capital needed for
investment. In today's time, the Australian farmer is facing the shortage of the skilled labor. The
price of agriculture is trending downwards and increasing the cost which put more pressure on
the profit margins (Mullen, and Keogh, 2013).
The importance of the Australian agriculture is that this sector production has boosted the other
sectors also and given the job to 1.6 billion Australians in the farming and the related sector and
accounted 17.2% of the national workforce. The farmers worked in such areas as pest, land, soil,
weed prevention and water-related issues. The farmer of Australia has invested heavily in the
research and development so that they can beat the international competitor; they invested $237
million a year. Farmers also lead the primary industries in reducing the greenhouse gases up to
40%and placed the important emphasis on the Natural resource management.
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Source: (Consortium Land, 2013)
The key players in Australian agriculture are Crops and wheat is that cereal which has the
greatest production in terms of volume and area in the economy of Australia. Horticulture; this
industry provides fresh fruits and vegetables which includes apple, orange, potatoes, chestnuts,
and tomatoes. Viticulture; Australia has the wide range of industry of wines; the varieties of
wines which are grown in Australia are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. This
industry has grown in the 1990s; the production and supply of wine have increased. Animal
products; beef industry, pork industry, lamb meat industry. Diary; the dairy product of
Australia stands at the fourth position in exports, the growth of dairy industry in Australia
depends on the expanding of the export market. The exports of dairy products grow over time in
the Middle East and Asia. Fisheries; the export of fisheries product has increased and it
represent 32% of the export market. Wool; this is also an important product of the agriculture of
Australia; this industry is recognized for producing the finest in quality of wool. Almost 90%of
wool of Australia are exported and decreased the price of the wool (Dowd, et. al., 2014).
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Conclusion
It has to conclude that the agriculture industry of Australia has an important role in the growth of
the economy of Australia. The agriculture industry is the fastest growing industry in Australia,
which has the maximum number of exports. It is the industry which adopts innovation and
increases the productivity. In this report the agriculture product which is export are discussed,
the challenges and the issues of the agriculture industry are discussed. The policyholder of the
industry in agriculture is discussed. The growth of economy due to the agriculture in Australia is
discussed.
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References
 Consortium Land, 2013. Australia as an agricultural exporter [Online] Consortium Land.
Available at: http://www.consortiumland.com/investors/australia-as-an-agricultural-
exporter/ [Accessed on 5 May 2018].
 Dowd, A.M., Marshall, N., Fleming, A., Jakku, E., Gaillard, E. and Howden, M., 2014.
The role of networks in transforming Australian agriculture. Nature Climate Change
 Gray, M. E., Emer, O. M., and Sheng, Y., 2014. Australian agricultural productivity
growth Department of Agriculture
 Mullen, J., and Keogh, M., 2013. The Future Productivity and Competitiveness
Challenge for Australian Agriculture
 Rickards, L., & Howden, S. M. (2012). Transformational adaptation: agriculture and
climate change. Crop and Pasture Science, 63(3), 240-250.
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