Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Tasmanian Liberal Government continues to deliver on its ambitious goal to grow the value of Tasmanian agriculture to $10 billion by 2050 with Tasmanian farmer confidence hitting a new six-year high.
The latest quarterly Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey* shows continued strong confidence within Australia's farming sector, with farm confidence in Tasmania and New South Wales leading the nation.
Rabobank reported that 45 per cent of Tassie farmers are tipping farming conditions to improve in the next 12 months with prospects of another big production year.
Rabobank also notes that Tasmanian dairy farmers are particularly upbeat on the back of good opening milk contracts and a great lead into winter which is consistent with the feedback I received at a meeting with DairyTas earlier this month.
This positive outlook comes on the back of recent ABS commodity figures which showed that the total value of agriculture in Tasmania for 2019-20 was up by 14.7 per cent ($240 million) compared to the national figure of just 0.4 per cent.
And the good news continues, with today's announcement that Cressy dairy farmer George Rigney has received $100,000 from the Woolworths Dairy Innovation Fund.
The Fund supports innovation and efficiency and George plans to introduce new in-line milk sensor technology to the dairy he runs with his brother and father at Cressy.
The Tasmanian Government is committed to promoting sustainable growth and innovation in agriculture, which is why we are investing $3 million in a new Agricultural Development Fund supporting agricultural research, development and extension in Tasmanian agriculture.
This is part of our investment of almost $50 million to accelerate the agriculture industry which supports rural and regional communities and thousands of Tasmanian jobs.
