Australia agricultural revenues rise after tough year

Significance

The strong performance is impressive given pandemic-related disruptions, which have contributed to labour shortages, damage from a continuing plague of mice and Beijing’s limits on some categories of agricultural imports.

Impacts

• Tensions with China over its limits on agricultural imports will continue as Australia protests to the WTO.
• Companies' search for new export outlets will ultimately lower China-related risks, but progress will vary by sector.
• Plans to issue temporary visas for overseas workers will come too late to prevent labour shortages in 2021/22.