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Australian farmers share high input price concerns

High input prices are squeezing margins for producers in North America and beyond.

Matthew Worrell, Agriculture Minister Counselor for the Australian Embassy, says farmers in his country hope commodity prices remain elevated.

“A key challenge for farmers in Australia is about managing their business and managing their input costs. Luckily at the moment we’ve got very high global commodity prices, but there’s that sort of challenge about how to make a buck out of farming when you’ve got those really high input costs.”

He tells Brownfield drought is often a problem in Australia, but this year some areas have received too much rain.

“But Australia, like the U.S., is a big country so at any one time we could have a part of the country that’s in drought, that’s in flood, having a bush fire, or a cyclone if you’re up north. So there’s a lot of challenges there.”

Brownfield interviewed Worrell Monday at the Minnesota state capitol in St. Paul, where he and other foreign representatives were beginning a tour highlighting Minnesota agriculture hosted by USDA’s Foreign Ag Service and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.