Australian floods to have huge effect on agricultural economy
11/01/2011
An agricultural economics expert at the Australian National University in Canberra, Jeff Bennett, has told local media that he believes the final economic impact could be higher than $5 billion, with the clean-up bill likely to exceed that.
“What we’ll see is not just the immediate loss of crops and loss of livestock in the agricultural areas, but loss of infrastructure, of housing and facilities,” Professor Bennett said. “There’s going to be a huge hit on the economy in terms of the products from those regions that have been hit not coming through market, increases in prices and increases in scarcity of fruit and vegetables over coming weeks.”
In the longer term, a shortage of grain will make it more expensive to feed cattle and push up meat prices, he added. This will affect hide prices too.
Share this story:
