Australia predicts record farm production despite challenges

Australia is forecast to reap record revenue from farming this year despite pandemic challenges, a mouse plague and a trade dispute with China

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia is forecast to reap record farm revenues this year despite pandemic challenges, a mouse plague and a trade dispute with China. Australian farmers are expected to sell 73 billion Australian dollars ($54 billion) in produce in the current fiscal year that started in July thanks to favorable weather and grain prices inflated by drought in the United States and Canada, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Agriculture Department’s research branch. That compares with AU$66 billion ($49 billion) earned in 2020-21. That was also a good year for agriculture that followed a prolonged, crippling drought and devastating wildfires across southeast Australia. The latest forecast is the first time the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences has forecast a return exceeding AU$70 billion ($51 billion).