What was it all about? 

This short and now concluded project worked with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to review the calculation of GVP for the macadamia industry. Specifically, it looked at the potential to use business data from within the macadamia supply chain to replace traditional ABS survey data.

The work was instigated by the idea that survey coverage issues may be contributing to a potential underestimation of production. It involved a pilot study to see if data from nut processors could be drawn into the process as an alternate source of information to be used in GVP estimates – reducing the traditional survey burden on growers and maximising the use of data already collected.

While providing proof of concept, the pilot study has identified issues which will need to be navigated before such data substitution can be undertaken on an ongoing and systematic basis. Hort Innovation is currently working with the ABS and macadamia industry to establish the next steps for this area of research.