SA's primary industries and agribusiness revenue totalled $14.1 billion in the 2019-20 financial year, down by 7.6 per cent from the previous year.
According to the Primary Industries Scorecard 2019-20, the total value of primary production for 2019-20 was $7.79b, a decline of 1.3pc. The drop has been attributed to lower average prices for grains and wool during 2019-20, combined with lower volumes of sheepmeat and wild catch fisheries.
When releasing the scorecard this week, the state government said the result highlighted the reliance on the primary industries and agribusiness sector to keep the economy moving despite a number of challenges including drought, bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister David Basham said SA farmers should be proud of the $14.1b revenue recorded in 2019-20 in the face of adversity.
"Our agriculture sector is incredibly resilient and the 2019-20 Primary Industries Scorecard reflects the ability for our farmers to adapt to the challenges before them," Mr Basham said.
"SA's primary industries and agribusiness sector is a vital part of our economy supporting more than 70,000 jobs across the state.
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"In 2019-20, the sector saw reduced export demand, particularly in wine, seafood and wool, but other sectors picked up much of the difference."
The wool sector experienced the largest drop in production value, down 33.6pc, while wine was down 11.9pc, seafood lost 8.5pc and field crops dropped by 1.5pc.
But, this was partially offset by growth in the production value for livestock (up 4.7pc), horticulture (up 12pc), forestry (up 11pc) and dairy (up 12pc).
"The scorecard shows the value of the international exports of agriculture, food, wine and forestry products grew by 3pc to $5.6b, representing 51pc of the state's total merchandise export value in 2019-20," Mr Basham said.
"Through the whole supply chain, combined gross food and wine revenue increased to $20.56b, with increases in overseas export of food commodities and retail sales."
The Primary Industries Scorecard includes the revenue, sales, exports and gross value production of primary industries sectors and associated processing such as field crops, livestock, horticulture, wine, seafood, dairy, forestry, wool, skins, seeds and animal feed.
In terms of industry revenue, the largest sectors were field crops worth $3.82b, livestock with $3.18b in revenue, wine with $1.98b, horticulture with $1.82b and forestry with $1.6b.
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