The annual Horticulture Statistics Handbook, released on February 16, includes the latest available data on 75 different categories across fruit, vegetable, nut, nursery and cut flowers.
And this year, potatoes were top performers in volume growth.
Hort Innovation’s Adam Briggs said the rise correlated with Aussies also buying more spuds when they visited retailers, and their use in food service had climbed year-on-year.
“The humble spud has become a bit of a vegetable superstar,” he said.
“From the year ending June 2020 to the year ending June 2021, we’ve seen the value of potatoes climb by $90.9 million, and the tonnes produced rise by five per cent.”
Mr Briggs said the data showed 87 per cent of Australian households purchased potatoes, buying an average of 1.7kg per shopping trip.
The Horticulture Statistics Handbook is released each February and captures the previous financial year’s data.
The user-friendly guide includes figures on retail and food service use, exports and imports, share of production by state and territory, wholesale value and volume.
More data and insights from the 2020-21 handbook include:
- The value of fruit was stronger than the previous year after a rise in olive production ($99 million), avocados ($56 million), cherries ($47 million) and apples ($41 million).
- Table grapes were the most valuable fruit ($631.8 million). Apples took number two spot in value ($619.9 million) and overtook bananas ($596.8 million).
- More berries are available to Australians than ever before. Over an eight-year period, the volume of raspberries and blackberries has increased more than four-fold, while blueberry volumes have almost tripled.
- Oranges have seen an eighth year of consecutive growth in production value to reach a new high of $437.6 million, despite a seven per cent fall in production volume.
- Despite export disruptions, Victoria remains the largest driver with 46 per cent of total export value. Queensland was second with 16 per cent of export value, up from 12 per cent the previous year when it was the fourth highest behind, Victoria, NSW and South Australia.
- Both the turf and nursery sector continue to record a strong growth trajectory. The value of the turf industry exceeded $300 million for the first time, after a 9.9 per cent increase in value from 2019-20, while the value of the production nursery industry increased by $226 million, an 8.8 per cent increase from 2019-20.
9°C