What was it all about?

The Australian Horticultural Statistics Handbook was established in 2015 to provide a comprehensive and reliable source of statistical data for the Australian horticulture industry. It was developed in response to the industry’s need for more detailed, timely, and accessible insights into production, trade, and market trends.

Challenge

The Australian horticulture industry covers a wide range of fruit, vegetable, nut, and amenity products. This in turn creates challenges in collecting accurate and reporting on timely data for the horticulture industry at the individual commodity level. As the sector continues its strong growth, the need for trusted data to support evidence-based decision-making becomes even more crucial.

Response

The Australian Horticultural Statistics Handbook:  

• Provides a detailed and complete dataset, covering 75 individual horticulture categories across fruit, vegetables, nuts, and other horticulture. Also included are 9 category group overviews, including but not limited to, berries, citrus, summerfruit, and herbs.
• Assists in reducing turnaround times for data publication.   
• Is accessible online (via project HA18002), and provides real-time insights into category volumes and values across retail and food distribution channels. The user-friendly format allows for easy cross-category comparisons and summations of totals, making the data more practical for industry use.

Each edition includes: 

• Definitions and guidelines on how to use the statistics.
• Research methodologies and data sources.
• Information spanning production, supply chain dynamics, international trade, distribution channels, and consumption trends.
• Breakdown of imports and exports by region and state.
• Summary tables covering production value and volume, trade and volume, fresh supply volume, retail and food service value and volume, and wholesale value by category.

Benefit

By 2024, the Australian Horticultural Statistics Handbook had reached its 12th year, solidifying its role as a vital industry resource.

The handbook delivers accurate, commercially relevant data with strong support from the horticulture sector. Its insights are increasingly utilised for industry-level planning, research and development (R&D) and marketing projects, and strategic analysis. The data is also helping to identify gaps in industry data, track market trends, and benchmark performance over time.

By providing longitudinal data, the project has enabled the identification of trends over time, strengthening industry knowledge and decision-making. The handbook also plays a crucial role in highlighting the economic value of Australian horticulture and its contribution to the broader agricultural sector.

ACT NOW

Access the current edition of the Australian Horticulture Statitics Handbook here.