Economics of almond production in southern Australia (AL06008)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The project analysed the financial performance of a range of South Australian almond properties, established comparative information and developed benchmarks for economic performance. In all, six properties were analysed.

The project provided:

• Detailed information to project participants, to assist them to identify business strengths and weaknesses
• Feedback to industry on the key management issues that affected business performance
• A detailed report on major economic factors which influenced the viability of the Australian Almond Industry
• A model allowing development proposals to be assessed against industry benchmarks (see Technology Transfer Web Site reference).

Using a whole farm approach to examine each business the data was analysed to produce several performance indices. They were categorised into:

1. Total business performance
2. Resource sustainability
3. Cost analysis

The primary finding of this project was the critical financial indicators in almond production and their effect on profitability (Table 1). These performance benchmarks indicated a level at which most well managed properties were able to operate. In some indicators an individual property may have been able to do substantially better, while in others they were more difficult to reach. Analysis of performance indicators needed to be assessed as a group of indicators, rather than each one in isolation.