Grain Crops

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. Minister, how is the state's grain crop season progressing?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (15:03): I thank the member for Colton for this very, very important question, one that means so much to so many people in here, whether they represent regional areas of South Australia or whether they represent metropolitan seats, because when our grain growers have a good year everyone in South Australia has a good year. I am delighted to inform the house that South Australia's grain farmers are on track—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is on two warnings.

The Hon. P. Caica: And has been for a while, sir.

The SPEAKER: The member for Colton is called to order.

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: South Australia's grain farmers are on track to record a record grain crop this year, with the crop estimate at 10.5 million tonnes worth an estimated $2.2 billion at the farm gate. The latest estimate has the potential to break the previous record crop in 2010-11 of 10.3 million tonnes. According to the latest Crop and Pasture Report, produced by Primary Industries and Regions SA, favourable conditions across the state during September and October further boosted yields.

When we held our country cabinet down in the Mallee in September and the rain was coming down, the farmers we were speaking to said that every drop of rain they got during September was worth two or three drops at any other time of the year. Only two months ago, we estimated the crop at 8.9 million tonnes, so the new record-breaking 10.5 million tonne estimate is excellent news for our grain farmers. But, as any farmer will tell you, you can't count the crop until it is in the silos, so we need to cross our fingers and hope that all regions in South Australia have favourable weather conditions between now and harvest.

Of course, there has been a bit of a delay in this year's harvest and there has been some damage around the state. In some areas in the Mid North and some patches on Eyre Peninsula, we had some farmers whose crops were severely damaged. Thankfully, most of those people, from our reports, were covered by insurance. Overall, the rain has been ideal in most districts, helping the crop to exceed the previous estimate and keeping it on track, as I mentioned, for a record harvest.

I recently met with Chris Mahoney, the CEO of Glencore agriculture, and David Mattiske, the regional director of Glencore, who are both based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, as well as Tim Krause and Damian Fitzgerald of Viterra in Adelaide. They have been working closely with their silo committees in all the regions in South Australia preparing for this bumper crop, and they say that they have things in place to make sure that the infrastructure is there. They admit that this is going to be a huge crop if things continue along the way they have been.

We did get some updated information on the weekend that, with the storm that went through the Riverland, there was a separate cell just south of there that may have caused some isolated damage in the Mallee. We are still waiting on some reports of that, but we are hopeful that this Crop and Pasture Report that is being done—

Mr Knoll: Which one? Is this the October-November report?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL: This is the report that will be released today that I am informing the house about. It is such important news for South Australia. As I said at the outset, when things go well on our farms, things go well for the entire state. One in five working South Australians is employed in the agribusiness sector. It is worth $18.2 billion to the state. It is one of our economic priorities, and we stand by our farmers and wish them all the very best for their upcoming cropping season.