Trade

Statements from the Hon. Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, regarding releasing up to 20 per cent of the baseline Minimum Stockholding Obligation for petrol and diesel and temporarily amending Australia's fuel quality standards to allow higher sulfur levels for the next 60 days.

Right now across regional Western Australia something deeply concerning is unfolding. Farmers are being told their diesel deliveries have stopped. Some have been warned supply may not resume for weeks. Others cannot lock in deliveries at all. In some cases, operations have already ground to a halt simply because there is no fuel to run the machinery. This should alarm every Western Australian.

I’m continually amazed how many people can fly to Bali yet couldn’t point to it on a map. Ask them to name the countries that sit north of Indonesia and you’ll usually get a blank look. Yet geography still matters. In fact, it quietly dictates how the global economy works.

Beneath the agreeable language embedded in regenerative agriculture — soil health and sustainable ecosystems — sits a more consequential proposition: that modern, input-intensive agriculture has overshot its optimal point and that government policy should now encourage a structural shift toward lower-input systems. That is not a trivial adjustment. It is a claim about the production frontier of Australian agriculture. Claims of that magnitude ... warrant far more rigorous empirical scrutiny than they have so far received.

Australia’s cotton industry ... celebrating its contribution to the milestone set to be reached by Australian agriculture this year, with gross production value to exceed $100 billion – four years ahead of the 2030 target.

Ukrainian agricultural producers have managed to adapt to the changing market environment. In this new reality, farmers have little influence on events. Survival depends on the ability to adapt to circumstances, which in most cases are force majeure. This makes Ukrainian agriculture the most extreme agriculture in the world.

Australia’s beef exports are set to face some of the biggest adjustments compared with other international exporters as new import quotas announced by China in late last year reshape the global beef trade, Rabobank says in a newly-released report.

Australian agriculture is set to reach a record $101.4 billion in grosspproduction value in 2025-26 before easing in 2026–27, with both prices and output expected to soften. ABARES is forecasting combined agriculture, fisheries and forestry value to top $107.4 billion in 2025-26 – also a record - underscoring the strength of Australia’s primary industries. 

As the WA sheep industry watches in disbelief the rollout of the federal government’s transition package — where $139 million seems to be evaporating before our eyes — one thing is becoming painfully clear. The design of the funding means the vast majority of sheep producers impacted by the end of live exports won’t see a cent.

The Opposition has slammed the Cook and Albanese Labor Governments after the temporary closure of the Beaufort River meat processing facility in the Great Southern — coming just one day after governments announced supply-chain grants intended to "support" the sheep industry.

Since coming to power, the Federal Labor Government has presided over a sharp contraction in Western Australia’s sheep flock. Industry figures show numbers falling from roughly 12 million head in 2022 to around 8 million today — a drop of about one-third in just four years ... Just as the State Agriculture Minister was proudly announcing $20 million in grants to help farmers and processors adjust, Beaufort River Meats quietly announced it was moving into care and maintenance due to ongoing sheep shortages.

Australia’s horticulture sector has delivered a year of record?breaking performance, with the 2024/25 Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook revealing the industry has achieved its highest production value to date of $18.4 billion, up 6 per cent on the previous year.  

Australian agriculture is growing, adaptable, more productive, and well placed to take advantage of the transition to net zero, according to the latest ABARES Snapshot of Australian Agriculture 2026 Insights paper.

Some of Victoria’s top drops are headed to the world’s largest wine museum, further cementing our international reputation. Minister Pearson today revealed seven Victorian wineries will be featured at the Cité du Vin in Bordeaux, which welcomes more than 400,000 wine lovers a year.

The Cook Labor Government has dealt a major blow to regional Western Australia by excluding the Wheatbelt Secondary Freight Network (WSFN) from its State infrastructure investment shortlist; a decision that now threatens Federal funding and delays to critical regional road upgrades ... “This is one of the most effective and collaborative regional freight programs WA has ever seen and the Cook Government has chosen to walk away from it,” Mr Hunter said.

Extreme weather, the rising Aussie dollar and fluctuating global demand have driven a complex start to the year for Australian agriculture, Bendigo Bank’s Agribusiness Insights team outline. Key insights from the latest Commodity Update include Pressure on producers as extreme weather impacts livestock, damages infrastructure...

South Australia has officially experienced its strongest four years on record for international trade, with latest ABS stats revealing our state’s exporters have sold an additional $21 billion worth of local goods to the world since 2022 ... Each calendar year within this period has eclipsed the pre-2022 record of $13.1 billion by more than $3 billion, with 2023, 2024 and 2025 each exceeding $17 billion.

As negotiations take place in Brussels this week for an Australia-European Union Free Trade Agreement, Australia’s peak farm body welcomes comments by Trade Minister Don Farrell that the deal hinges on securing a better deal for Australian Agriculture ... National Farmers’ Federation President Hamish McIntyre said Australian farmers would hold the Minister to these comments against a growing fear that Australian agriculture is about to be traded away.

The Crisafulli Government and Port of Townsville Limited are strengthening trade and supply chains in North Queensland with upgrades to berths three and four at the Port of Townsville. This upgrade removes a key bottleneck by extending the operating reach of the Port’s Liebherr Ship-to-Shore crane across both berths, improving vessel turnaround times for containerised, general cargo and other trade-critical freight. 

Geopolitics remains the "dominant risk factor" for Australian agriculture in the year ahead, Rabobank says in its newly-released annual outlook, with the prospect that fast-changing global trade rules and volatile commodity prices are set to continue.