The primary industries estimates and forecasts are updated twice a year in September and April, when data becomes available.
Updates are based on the latest available information at the time and are made after consulting experts from industry and government.
How the data is collated
Gross value of production (GVP) refers to the output of primary-industry operations.
We calculate the gross values of commodities produced by multiplying the output from each primary-industry activity by the average wholesale market price paid to producers.
Current estimates of major primary-industry processing activity are based on a methodology from:
- the 2006–07 Australian Bureau of Statistics manufacturing survey
- census statistics released in April 2009.
The methodology assumes a constant ratio of:
- farm output to processing output
- processing output to value added by the processing industry.
Data from before 2010–11 used the methodology from the Queensland 2000–01 manufacturing survey. Therefore, the first-stage processing forecasts from 2010–11 onwards should not be compared with the estimates for previous years.
What's not included
Most non-commercial activities, such as home vegetable-and-flower gardening and hobbyist beekeeping, are not included due to a lack of data.
Recreational fishing is included, but at a conservative valuation, based on harvest value.
Including value added
Value added refers to the additional value created at a particular stage of production.
Economists use the value-added method to avoid double-counting. Adding the value added in each production stage equals the value of the final product. Final products include consumer goods and fixed capital equipment. In a microeconomic context, value added is simply measured as the value of the output produced minus the costs of the intermediate inputs.
This analysis does not include value adding that happens after the first round. Some industries have many rounds of processing and value adding beyond the first round. For instance, timber is processed in many downstream industries, including wooden structural component, pulp, paper and paperboard, and paper-product processing.
Overseas-traded commodities
The prices of all overseas-traded commodities respond to changes in the exchange rate of the Australian dollar.
Prices paid to primary producers, and therefore gross unit values, could change depending on exchange rates increases or decreases.
Trade data
To ensure accuracy of data from the trade dashboard, select commodities of interest using the hierarchy slicer. The slicer is based on the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Rev. 4, which groups goods according to their level of manufacturing or processing.
Confidentiality restrictions on trade data
If requested by a business, the release of statistics for certain products is restricted to prevent the identification of the activities of the business. These restrictions do not affect the total value of exports and imports, but they can affect statistics at the country, state and commodity levels.
See the International Merchandise Trade: Confidential Commodities List (CCL) for more information about the confidentiality restrictions applied to the merchandise trade statistics.
Queensland agriculture confidentialised exports:
- Sugar (SITC4 06111)—no details since February 1998
- Cotton lint (SITC4 26310)—no state details since December 2018
- Macadamia nuts (SITC4 05779)—no state details since March 2000.
Last updated: 23 Mar 2023