Farmers ‘we’re back’ following the 2013 drought

Farmers ‘we’re back’ following the 2013 drought

Agricultural production has turned in a stellar performance in the September quarter, which has helped to lift Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the quarter by 1.4 percent. All this on the day China has overtaken Australia as our single largest export market.

“I can safely say ‘were back’ from the drought with agricultural production up 17 percent for the September quarter,” says Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers President.

“That said, the lingering after effects of drought still means we’re down 5.6 percent compared to this point last year.

“To me, this reaffirms why water storage is essential economic infrastructure to meet not only surging demand for our primary exports, but whatever a changing climate will throw at us.

“I’ll leave it to the economists to deduce what the opportunity cost of this year’s drought is but small it is not.

“We have also seen a historic shift in our export profile with exports to China overtaking Australia for the first time ever on an annual basis.

“I thought it would have taken until next year, but it shows everyone how explosive trade growth is when made possible by free trade agreements,” Mr Wills concluded.
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