Australian Agriculture: Horticulture

Horticultural crop estimates for Australia and state and territories are reproduced courtesy of Hort Innovation Australia.

Fruit:

• Local value of Australian table grapes was $751.6 million, a decrease of $167.0 million from 2022-23
• Table grape production fell 46,000 tonnes to 187,000 tonnes
• Local value of Bananas was $697.8 million, an increase of $114.5 million
• Banana production decreased 6,000 tonnes to 369,000 tonnes
• Apples had a local value of $680.2 million, an increase of $33.2 million
• Apple production increased 9,000 tonnes to 294,000 tonnes.

Vegetables:

• Potatoes had a local value of $1.1 billion, an increase of $70.5 million
• Potato production increased 67,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes
• Leafy salad vegetables had a local value of $688.3 million, a decrease of $48.2 million
• Production of leafy salad vegetables increased 3,000 tonnes to 78,000 tonnes
• Tomatoes had a local value of $599.9 million, an increase of $29.3 million
• Tomato production increased 116,000 tonnes to 438,000 tonnes.

Nuts:

• Almonds had a local value of $870.3 million, an increase of $337.2 million
• Almond production increased 61,000 tonnes to 219,000 tonnes
• Macadamias had a local value of $201.9 million, an increase of $97.9 million
• Macadamia production increased 6,000 tonnes to 58,000 tonnes.

In 2023-24:

• Production increased by 36,000 tonnes to 151,000 tonnes from 2022-23
• Local value rose 5% to $589.0 million
• Total crop area was 19,600 hectares with a bearing area of 17,200 hectares
• There were 752 avocado producing businesses, a decrease of 50 businesses.

Nationally, 88% of the avocado crop area was bearing. The difference between total and bearing crop area is non-bearing crop area which reflects investments in new plantings that are yet to bear fruit.

Queensland had the largest avocado crop area with 10,600 hectares, of which 9,200 hectares (87 per cent) was bearing. This was followed by Western Australia with a crop area of 5,300 hectares of which 4,500 hectares (86 per cent) was bearing.

Western Australia replaced Queensland as Australia’s largest avocado producing state, producing 217 per cent (45,000 tonnes) more avocados than in 2022-23. Queensland production fell by 14 per cent (10,800 tonnes) to 64,300 tonnes. Feedback from the avocado industry suggests that the large production increase in Western Australia was a result of alternate bearing which impacts avocado trees in this state.

Local value in Western Australia was $264.9 million, an increase of $163.9 million compared to 2022-23. Queensland local value was $251.5 million, $113.1 million less than the previous year. Western Australia and Queensland dominated national local value, accounting 88 per cent of local value for Australia.

The large increase in production in Western Australia saw a number of SA2s in this state enter the top 10 in 2023-24. Pemberton (WA) was the highest avocado producing SA2 accounting for 21 per cent of national production and representing an increase of 164 per cent (19,700 tonnes). Manjimup had a 222 per cent increase (9,000 tonnes) while Busselton Surrounds had a 329 per cent increase (6,800 tonnes). In contrast, avocado production dropped in all Queensland SA2s in the top 10. Despite the decline, Bundaberg Surrounds - South remained the second largest avocado producing SA2 contributing 13 per cent (20,200 tonnes) to national production.

In 2023-24:

• Australian production decreased by 6,000 tonnes to 369,000 tonnes from 2022-23
• Local value of crop sold increased by $114.5 million to $697.8 million
• Total crop area was 13,400 hectares 

Queensland had the largest banana crop area with 12,300 hectares or 91 per cent of the Australian banana crop area. This was followed by New South Wales and Western Australia with crop areas of 900 and 200 hectares respectively.

Queensland was Australia’s largest banana producing state, with 94 per cent (347,000 tonnes) of Australia’s bananas sold in 2023-24, followed by New South Wales with 4 per cent (15,000 tonnes). Nationally production fell slightly, by 1 per cent.

The local value of banana production in Queensland was $656.0 million, an increase of $107.7 million from 2022-23. In New South Wales local value increased by $4.6 million to $27.9 million.

The Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions producing the most bananas in 2023-24 were in Northern Queensland. Johnstone (Qld) was the largest banana producing SA2 contributing 32 per cent of national banana production followed by Tully (Qld) and Babinda (Qld) which contributed 27 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

The interactive map below shows the distribution of banana production across Australia.

Areas can be selected to view the underlying data. All data can be found in the Data downloads section of this publication.

In 2023-24:

• Australian production increased by 6,000 tonnes to 58,000 tonnes from 2022-23
• Local value increased by $97.9 million to $201.9 million
• Total crop area was 44,100 hectares with a bearing area of 32,700 hectares
• There were 790 macadamia producing businesses.

Nationally, 32,700 hectares or 74 per cent of the macadamia crop area was bearing. This represents an increase of 4,200 hectares from 2022-23. Queensland had the largest crop area with 27,300 hectares of macadamias, an increase of 2,600 hectares. Bearing area in Queensland increased by 3,000 hectares to 18,500 hectares, comprising 68 per cent of total macadamia crop area in Queensland. This reflects that there is a significant area of younger crops in Queensland. New South Wales had the second largest crop area with 16,700 hectares of which 14,100 hectares (85 per cent) was bearing.

Queensland produced 68 per cent of Australia’s macadamias increasing by 2,700 tonnes to 39,000 tonnes in 2023-24. New South Wales produced 32 per cent, increasing by 3,300 tonnes to 18,600 tonnes, Western Australia produced the remainder with the majority sold into the tourist trade. 

The local value of macadamia production in Queensland was $137.0 million, an increase of $63.7 million from the previous year. Local value in New South Wales was $64.9 million, an increase of $34.3 million.

Bundaberg Surrounds (North and South) both in Queensland remained the two highest macadamia producing Statistical Area 2 (SA2) regions in Australia, accounting for 42 per cent of national production in 2023-24. Lismore Surrounds and the adjacent Ballina Surrounds both in New South Wales were the next two highest producing SA2 regions, accounting for 22 per cent of Australian production. The largest increase in production for SA2 regions was in Lismore Surrounds (NSW) where there was an increase of 1,700 tonnes. This was followed by Maryborough Surrounds – South (Qld) with an increase in production of 1,400 tonnes.

In 2023-24:

• Australian wine grape crush increased by 112,000 tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes from 2022-23
• Local value rose $24.2 million to $1.0 billion.

South Australia continues to be the highest wine grape producing state contributing 49 per cent (700,000 tonnes) of the national wine grape crush, despite a decrease of 26,000 tonnes from 2022-23. In contrast, crush volume increased in New South Wales and Victoria by 63,000 tonnes and 74,000 tonnes respectively.

South Australia remained Australia’s top wine grape producing state contributing $518.3 million or 52 per cent to the national local value of wine grapes crushed. This is despite a decrease of 26,000 tonnes from 2022-23. Victoria increased by $44.4 million to $178.2 million, Tasmania increased by $21.7 million to $61.0 million and New South Wales increased by $9.8 million to $174.0 million.

Griffith Surrounds (SA2) in New South Wales was the highest wine grape producing region with 235,000 tonnes of grapes crushed in 2023-24. This was followed by Renmark Surrounds, Waikerie and Barmera in South Australia which together accounted for 23 per cent of the total national wine grape crush. 

The interactive map below shows the distribution of wine grape production across Australia.

Areas can be selected to view the underlying data. All data can be found in the Data downloads section of this publication.

These experimental regional horticulture and wine grape estimates align with the national production and value statistics published by Hort Innovation and Wine Australia. These statistics have been modelled to smaller regions using a combination of regional production, value, yield and bearing area data from Industry. This data is combined with crop mapping produced by the Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre and Wine Australia to provide the additional regional detail about the area and locations where different crops are grown. The intention is to incrementally apply this approach to additional crops as data becomes available in future years. For more detail refer to the methodology section.

The data presented in this release improves location accuracy and regional detail for ABS horticulture and wine grape statistics. The crop mapping data used to produce these estimates identifies selected horticulture and wine grape crops with an improved level of geographic accuracy compared to the address information from survey data. In addition, the crop mapping and industry data reflect the area, production and value of the entire industry compared to a small sample of businesses included in the survey. This broader coverage supports the production of more accurate statistics for smaller regional areas such as SA2s. For more detail refer to the methodology section.

Regional statistics for avocados, bananas, macadamias and wine grapes are available through Data Explorer. Some estimates for 2022-23 have been revised due to improvements in input data and method.

Link to Data Explorer: Avocado, banana, macadamia and wine grape crops, 2023-24 by Australia, states and territories and by Statistical Area 2

For information on Data Explorer and how it works, see the Data Explorer user guide.

ABS agricultural statistics are being released in a staggered manner to ensure statistics are published as close to the reference period as possible. This release schedule is likely to be further refined in coming years as new methods and production processes are improved. Statistics for broadacre crops and livestock are available in:

• Australian Agriculture: Broadacre Crops, 2023-24
• Australian Agriculture: Livestock, 2023-24

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is modernising the way official agricultural statistics are produced to better support Australian agriculture. New data sources are supporting improved regional detail on an annual basis. This helps to understand impacts from biosecurity and climate risks as well as supply chain and infrastructure requirements and supports decision making by governments, industry and farmers.

These changes were outlined in early 2023 in Modernising ABS Agriculture Statistics which explained why the ABS is modernising its Agriculture Statistics Program and the guiding principles being followed. A further update was provided with the release of Modernising agricultural statistics: Update on achievements and remaining data gaps in October 2024. This update highlighted the achievements of the agriculture statistics modernisation program and outlined the remaining data gaps and progress towards addressing them. One focus of this continuing development work, is the expansion of horticulture commodities available at regional levels.

A key part of the modernisation has been the development of partnerships with industry and government to identify new data sources and develop new statistical methods. This has reduced reporting burden on farmers and created greater consistency between existing data sources which helps to build trust in the statistics.

ABS horticulture crop statistics are produced using a combination of data from the Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook, industry data and satellite derived crop mapping. This approach has enabled detailed regional Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) statistics to be produced for avocados, macadamias, bananas and wine grapes. These regional statistics can be accessed through Data Explorer.

For further information on the methods and data sources used to produce the statistics in this publication please see the Methodology section.

This issue has revisions for 2022-23 estimates presented in the following datacubes:

• Horticultural crops by Australia, state and territory by year - tables 1 to 6 inclusive
• Selected horticulture crops by Australia, state and territory by year - tables 1 and 2

The ABS would like to thank Hort Innovation, Avocados Australia, the Australian Macadamia Society, the Australian Banana Growers Council, Wine Grapes Australia and the Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre at the University of New England for providing the data required to produce the estimates presented in this release. Also, thank you to the many individuals and organisations who contributed to developing the method used to produce these estimates without the need to survey farmers.

18/06/2025 - This updated release corrects errors identified on 18 June 2025 in the datacube titled "Horticultural Crops by Australia, state and territory by year". State and national totals for local value of wine grapes in Table 1 were corrected. The ACT was also added to Table 1. In the main release the change in value for horticulture was corrected.