A snapshot of the nut industry for the 2019/20 financial year

In 2019/20, the horticulture sector overall exceeded $15 billion in production value with nut industries accounting for nine per cent of total horticulture value. During this period, nut production value increased year-on-year by 19.1 per cent from $1,157 million in 2018/19 to $1,378 million in 2019/20.

All nut industries experienced year-on-year value growth of greater than 10 per cent, with exceptional growth seen from pistachios (52.3 per cent), pecans (52.3 per cent), macadamias (26.4 per cent), walnuts (25.9 per cent) and hazelnuts (23.3 percent).

Despite the challenging seasonal conditions caused by bushfires and prolonged drought, the nut sector also saw a 6.7 per cent increase in the volume produced, from 215,828 tonnes in 2018/19 to 230,225 tonnes in 2019/20. Seventy per cent of this growth or 10,143 tonnes was from the almond industry due to its proportionately larger size to other nut industries.

During 2019/20 nut exports eased with export volume down 11 per cent, and export value down by 6 percent. Hort Innovation Head of Data and Insights Adam Briggs said, “This result reflects a stabilisation of exports after a strong increase in export value of 39 percent from 2017/18 to 2018/19.”

Almonds were found to have the highest export value of any horticulture industry, at $648 million, whereas macadamias send the highest proportion of their production volume to exports of any horticulture industry, at 82.5 per cent.

Hort Innovation has recently launched the latest Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook which offers the most comprehensive and contemporary data available on all sectors of the Australian horticulture industry in one easy-to-read-guide.

More information

• See the Horticulture Statistics Handbook on the Hort Innovation website.