Australian farm levy payers list topped by grain growers

Dairy farmers were the next most heavily levied, at an average of $6641 for its 4643 levy payers.

In fact, wheat growers alone paid more in research and marketing levies last year than the entire red meat sector's contribution.

Australian grain growers paid $223.15 million to research body the Grains Research and Development Corporation. Of these, wheat growers alone paid $103.3 million.

This eclipsed the $97.8 million paid by beef, sheep meat and goat meat producers to Meat and Livestock Australia.

In total, Australian farmers paid more than half a billion dollars in research and marketing levies last year.

Our analysis of funding for Australian agriculture's four statutory research and development corporations and nine industry-owned research and marketing companies (excluding forestry) showed they received a total of $565 million in producer funding last year.

And they also received $386.5 million in government funding.

The $223.15 million paid by grain growers - levied on wheat, coarse grains, pulses and oilseeds - was boosted by a bumper crop in 2021-22 and even took the GRDC by surprise, which had budgeted to receive just $119 million from growers.

Grain levy amounts fluctuate wildly with drought. In 2019-20 GRDC received $95.8 million from growers, which was a 12-year low.

Because of the boost in grain grower funding in 2021-22, the federal government's contribution of $95.7 million to the GRDC was up 39 per cent on the previous year.

However, the government contribution to GRDC was not the largest. That honour was taken by Meat and Livestock Australia, which received $98.8 million in tax-payer funds.

The third biggest levy payers were fruit and vegetable growers, who tipped $71.6 million into Hort Innovation.

This was ahead of wool growers, who contributed $43.75 million to Australian Wool Innovation and dairy farmers, who paid $30.8 million to Dairy Australia for research and marketing.

Sugar growers contributed $21.08 million to its research body, Sugar Australia, while wine growers and exporters paid $20.17 million to Wine Australia.

Australian Pork Limited received $17.75 million in producer levies, while AgriFutures, which represented 13 small and emerging industries, had $6.1 million tipped into its coffers by growers.

Egg producers paid $7.7 million and cotton growers contributed $6.55 million into its research and marketing arm.

The smallest farmer levy-paying sector was deer, which contributed $1037 to AgriFutures, while ratite (large birds) failed to notch up any contribution.

The smallest contribution from the government was to the kangaroo sector, at just $1144.

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Individually, grain growers contributed the most, with each grower paying an average of $10,273 in 2021-22. Dairy farmers were the next most heavily levied, at an average of $6641.

Red meat producers chipped in an average of $1964 each, while sugar growers paid an average of $2426.

Wool growers paid an average of $657 in 2021-22 across 66,610 levy payers. However, less than a third of those - 18,012 - paid $100 or more in wool levies in the past three financial years, according to AWI.

The individual picture is not so clear for other sectors, with horticulture stretched across 24 industries, pork and eggs dominated by big corporate operators, and wine having a mix of levies across growers and manufacturers.

AgriFutures' annual report did not reveal how many levy payers it has across the 13 industries it represented. These ranged from chicken meat and export fodder to deer, buffalo and tea tree oil.

Australian Farm Institute executive director Richard Heath - who is also a GRDC board director - said the levy system was generally working well, producing outcomes for agriculture well beyond the investment.

"There is clear evidence that shows a link between agriculture R&D and agriculture productivity," Mr Heath said.

"A system that guarantees the continued and stable funding of agriculture R&D is good for agricultural productivity."

Mr Heath said Australia sat mid-range globally for farmer and government levies for agriculture, and Australian farmers generally accepted the need for levies and the rates they paid.

"On the whole, the data we see from polling farmers is still predominantly in favour of levies and recognising the value that is delivered from levies.

"You are never going to get complete alignment on that, but the vast majority of farmers are either strongly in support or in support of the levy system and the amount of levies that they are paying."

Mr Heath, however, did say that farmer concern usually arose when there was low transparency on where levies were going, and the outcomes for specific projects.

"As more things get added on, separating out what is going where, and then being able to assess whether you are getting a return or not is something that is difficult and runs the risk of the entire system getting conflated together and getting poorly assessed."

Red meat: Growers pay transaction levies of $5 a head for grassfed and grainfed cattle, $1.50 a head for lambs, 20c a head for sheep and 37.7c a head for goats. While the bulk of this goes to MLA, Animal Health Australia and the National Residue Survey also receive some of the levy funds.

Grain: Levies are collected at the first point of sale at a rate of 0.99 percent on wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, triticale, millets/panicums, cereal rye, canary seed, lupins, field peas, chickpeas, faba beans, vetch, peanuts, mung beans, navy beans, pigeon peas, soybeans, cowpeas, lentils, canola, sunflower, safflower and linseed. Maize is levied at 0.693%.

Wool: Growers pay 1.5 per cent the sale value of their wool.

Pork: Growers are levied at $3.425 per carcass at slaughter. APL receives $3.25 of this - $2.25 for marketing and policy activities and $1 for research - with remaining $0.175 going to the Pig Monitoring Residue Program.

Dairy: The Dairy Service Levy in 2021-22 was 2.8683 c/kg milk fat and 6.9914 c/kg protein. According to Dairy Australia, these combined levies were equivalent to about 4.7221 c/kg milk solids. The levy is deducted by milk processing companies from payments made to farmers for their milk.

Live export: Livestock exporters pay levies to fund LiveCorp at a rate of $0.009523/kg for beef cattle, $6 a head for dairy cattle, 60c a head for sheep and 50c a head for goats.

Sugar: Growers and millers each pay 35c a tonne of cane.

Cotton: The levy is collected either on cotton lint bales at the point of ginning or on the export of seed cotton. Cotton farmers pay $2.25 for each 227 kilogram bale of cotton lint. For seed cotton, they pay a levy of $4.06 per tonne of exported seed cotton.

Biosecurity: The recently announced biosecurity levy means farmers will pay 10 per cent extra of their current levy payments.

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