AuctionsPlus: Covid-19 drives online selling of sheep, cattle and machinery
A leading online platform has sold more than a billion dollars extra in livestock and machinery in the past year.
Covid-19 restrictions were the driving force behind a massive 78 per cent increase in sales through the online AuctionsPlus platform last financial year.
Sales of livestock and machinery on AuctionsPlus topped $2.35 billion in 2020-21 — up from $1.3 billion the previous year and almost four times more than the $641 million it netted three years ago.
AuctionsPlus is a joint venture between Elders and Nutrien.
AuctionsPlus analyst Tim McRae said the 78 per cent increase in sales this past financial year was mostly thanks to a lift in online machinery auctions. Cattle sold through the platform jumped 27 per cent while sheep numbers lifted 10 per cent.
In 2020-21 AuctionsPlus offered 814,758 cattle (selling 675,464) and 4.4 million sheep (selling 3.42 million).
The biggest region for AuctionsPlus cattle listings and sales was southern Queensland, while the NSW Central West was the leader for sheep sales and southwest Victoria the strongest on sheep listings.
In addition to sheep and cattle, sales of gross merchandise — the bulk of which was machinery — were up $36 million to $168 million.
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