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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-02-21 Daily Xml
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Primary Industries Scorecard

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:03): My question is to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development. Will the minister inform the chamber about the 2021-22 PIRSA Primary Industries Scorecard?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (15:04): I thank the honourable member for his question. The Primary Industries Scorecard 2021-22 has been released. It shows yet again the strength of our primary industries and their vital importance to the South Australian economy. The report shows that in 2021-22 primary industries and agribusiness revenue increased by 12 per cent on 2020-21 figures, totalling $17.3 billion.

To put further context behind the often-stated importance of primary industries in our state, the sector supported 71,000 jobs throughout this period. Of course, challenges remain in terms of retaining workers and attracting workers, and in their training, as they do for many parts of the economy. It is something that will continue to be an important focus for government and industry.

Overseas exports of food, wine, agriculture and forestry products totalled $7.5 billion, which was an increase of 24 per cent on previous figures and accounted for 51 per cent of South Australia's total overseas merchandise exports. Despite a 35 per cent fall in exports to China, it was still the largest overseas destination for South Australian products in agriculture, food, wine and forestry, accounting for 9 per cent of exports within those sectors. The other top trade export markets for our primary produce include the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Egypt, Bangladesh, South Korea and Belgium.

Field crops in South Australia continue to perform strongly, setting a record production of 12.1 million tonnes and a record farmgate value of nearly $4.5 billion during the most recent harvest. The sector makes up the largest sum, in dollar figures, of our primary production industries, worth $5.6 billion to our state's economy. Four sectors topped $1 billion in revenue, namely, livestock at $4.1 billion, wine at $2.4 billion, horticulture at $2 billion and forestry at $1.4 billion, while our state's incredibly important dairy, seafood and wool sectors all topped half a billion dollars in revenue.

PIRSA's Primary Industries Scorecard gives us great insight into how primary industry sectors are travelling and highlights the value of these industries to our state in a very clear way. I look forward to having more to say about how individual sectors are faring and what the state government is doing to support the continued strengthening of our primary industry sectors.

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