vegetables

32
Economic Update
Analysing the results of the
latest Grower Confidence Survey
THE LATEST RESULTS FROM THE INDUSTRY-FUNDED GROWER CONFIDENCE
SURVEY ARE IN, WITH GROWERS INDICATING THAT CONFIDENCE IN THE BROADER
VEGETABLE INDUSTRY IS HIGHER THAN THE PREVIOUS QUARTER. VEGETABLES
AUSTRALIA DELVES DEEPER INTO THE ECONOMIC STATISTICS TO PROVIDE AN
ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLE GROWER CONFIDENCE LEVELS AND THE POSSIBLE
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WIDER INDUSTRY.
R&D
Drive Train
AUSVEG conducts quarterly
confidence surveys of
vegetable growers from across
Australia that comprises
questions relating to how
confident growers feel about key
economic indicators, including
macroeconomics, investment,
the market and government
policy. The results from these
surveys are then used to
measure changes in grower
confidence when compared to
results from previous surveys.
Information from the quarterly
surveys is used to track
grower sentiment in relation to
economic indicators over time,
with respondents located all
over Australia and varying
in farm size. Figure 1 shows
the tracking of vegetable
grower confidence over the
last six quarters, starting with a
base confidence index of 100.
The latest confidence survey
conducted in the June
2016 quarter indicated that
confidence levels in the
national vegetable industry
increased by over 32 per cent
when all economic indicators
were considered.
As can be seen in Figure 2,
confidence in each individual
economic indicator rose in
varying degrees when compared
to the previous quarter.
Confidence in government
policy (both state and federal
levels) grew substantially in
the survey period by over 240
per cent, but it is important
to note that this was following
a particularly low level of
confidence in the economic
indicator in the previous quarter.
Market confidence also grew
in the survey period, increasing
by around 40 per cent to nearly
match the level of confidence
that growers have in the current
investment climate.
Given the number of surveys
completed by growers in
different states, we are able
to analyse the confidence
levels of some vegetable
growing states in the most
recent survey period compared
to the previous period.
Victoria: Vegetable growers in
Victoria were, on average,
more confident than their
national counterparts in all
economic indicators and were
measured to be around 14
per cent more confident than
the national level.
Tasmania: While investment
and government confidence
levels were slightly higher