Barnaby Joyce bags credit for bounce

FARMERS’ incomes are rising, and it is has happened since the Abbott government came to power, Barnaby Joyce claimed yesterday.

Griffith citrus grower Frank Battistel says that he is finally once again making a profit. Picture: Vince Bucello

FARMERS’ incomes are rising, and it is has happened since the Abbott government came to power, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce claimed yesterday.

Opening the Agriculture Dep­artment’s annual Outlook conference in Canberra, Mr Joyce said that since the September 2013 election win, live cattle export prices had jumped 67 per cent to almost $1000 each; Roma saleyard prices for steers were at a record high of $3.93 a kilogram; cotton prices were up 23 per cent; and ­bananas and lemon prices had more than doubled.

“We are not claiming all the credit, but we have been part of an historical turnaround in agricultural prices in this nation, and the dignity it brings back to people’s lives at the farmgate,” Mr Joyce said.

“We (the government) are paid to serve, and ensure people prosper by our endeavours; when a better return goes to the farm gate, mothers can afford to renovate their kitchens like other families; the farmer can replace machinery, rebuild yards, improve pastures, and increase irrigation capacity. And this all refurbishes our ­nation’s capital base.”

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences has pre­dicted a rise in farm export prices this year for most commodities, much of it helped by the federal government’s signing last year of three bilateral free-trade agreements with Japan, Korea and China.

“I see in the field people saying it’s the best prices they’ve got and that they are clearing their overdrafts; (the government) has put runs on the board and played a major part with things like the FTAs,” Mr Joyce said.

Griffith citrus grower Frank Battistel said that, while everyone was now trying to claim credit for the surge in orange exports to China, the biggest difference had been created by the fall in the Australia dollar from $US1.09 two years ago to just US77c yesterday.

Mr Battistel, who grows 150ha of navel and valencia oranges, said he was finally once again making a profit after exports took off last year following the dollar’s depreciation.

Last year, he sold more than 1000 tonnes of navel oranges to China — a new market — at good prices and he agrees with the ABARES figures that the future is finally rosy again for ­citrus growers. The Agriculture Department predicts rising orange exports and a steady increase in production nationwide after the crash years of 2010-11, ­increasing as China’s 30 per cent tariff on citrus imports is removed over the next eight years.

China is now the third largest market for Australian citrus after the US and Japan, Mr Battistel agreeing it is a good omen no other big citrus-growing nations had negotiated a similar FTA.

ABARES chief executive Karen Schneider told the conference that every fall in the value of the Australian dollar provided an export earning bonanza for farmers and the national economy.

Ms Schneider said every cent of dollar depreciation directly ­increased the earning value of Australian farm exports for the nation by $490 million annually.

For farmers — who also suffer higher import prices for foreign-made machinery and fertiliser as a consequence of the lower dollar, as well as lower global commodity prices — the net farmgate benefit is $320m extra in their ’ pockets for every cent the Australian dollar slides.