CANBERRA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The overall value of Australia's agricultural production soared to new heights in 2015-16, with figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Friday showing the industry to be worth 56 billion Australian dollars (42.5 billion U.S. dollars).
In a statement accompanying Friday's statistics, ABS Director of Environment and Agriculture Statistics Lauren Binns said while in some instances, including in the beef market, there were fewer animals heading to the sales, the value of the meat had increased, pushing up the industry's production value.
She said it was strong value growth in the livestock sector that pushed the record growth in the overall agricultural field.
"The value of Australia's livestock disposals continues to increase, up 10 percent to 20.6 billion Australian dollars (15.6 billion U.S. dollars) compared to 2014-15," Binns said Friday.
"Beef was again the largest contributor to this rise, despite fewer animals heading to the saleyards, with strong price rises both domestically and internationally."
The "Agricultural Census" also showed that wheat remained Australia's most valuable crop for both local sales and exports, valued at 6.2 billion Australian dollars (4.7 billion U.S. dollars), followed by fruit, nuts and grapes at 5.6 billion Australian dollars (4.25 billion U.S. dollars) and vegetables at 3.6 billion Australian dollars (2.73 billion U.S. dollars).
Despite the positive news across the sector, Binns said there were mixed results in the field of broadacre farming, which includes crops such as canola, sunflowers, sorghum and barley.
"Nationally, the gross value of broadacre crops decreased by 4.8 percent to 15.4 billion Australian dollars (11.7 billion U.S. dollars). Most states recorded decreases, with Victoria and South Australia in particular down 28.5 percent and 22.8 percent respectively," she said.
