Australia's vegetable industry is big business. In 2023 the nation's vegetable industry was valued at $5.86 billion, with 3.6 million tonnes sold for domestic consumption and export supply.
One-fifth of national vegetable production is grown in Queensland. With two of the state's main vegetable growing regions located in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchment, stewardship for Reef water quality is an increasingly important consideration for growers.
Vegetable industry progress and participation
The vegetable industry has been an active participant in Growcom's Hort360 GBR program, benchmarking management practices to determine improvements needed to reduce impacts on Reef water quality.
Benchmarking with Hort360, the best management practice platform for horticulture, allows growers to assess current practices and identify changes required to operate at 'best practice'.
Growers that are managing nutrient, sediment, irrigation and pesticide at 'best practice' may choose to become Reef Certified, a voluntary certification that demonstrates stewardship for Reef water quality.
Since 2018, 2,702 hectares of vegetable production has been benchmarked and Reef Certified through the Hort360 GBR program. The majority of participation has been from vegetable growers in the Burdekin (48%) and the Burnett (42%), followed by the Wet Tropics (5%) and Central Queensland (5%).
Benchmarking is a valuable tool for assessing the collective management practices of a particular crop, and identifying if management practices are at, above or below 'best practice'.
The graph below demonstrates the average results for irrigation, nutrition, pesticide, and sediment benchmarked by all vegetable growers between 2018 and 2024. The hatched red line indicates industry best practice.
This data shows that in almost all regions, vegetable growers are managing their irrigation, nutrient, pesticide, and sediment practices to at least industry standard. It also shows that there is room for improvement in irrigation management in the Burnett, Central Queensland, and Burdekin, and both pesticide and sediment practices in Far North Queensland.
For more information:
Growcom
Tel: +61 07 3620 3844
Email: [email protected]
www.growcom.com.au