Agriculture - National Horticulture Industry Profiles - Sweet Corn
Sweet corn
In 1996/97 sweet corn had a gross value of $27 m, less than 1% of the total value of Australian horticultural production in that year.
Major producing areas
Sweet corn is grown commercially in all eastern Australian States, but mainly in NSW and Qld.
Almost all sweet corn production in Australia is for domestic consumption. About 40 000 t is processed each year in New South Wales.
Sweet corn is available all year round and the main varieties grown are Golden Jubilee, Golden Sweet (super sweet) and Pearl (bicolour super sweet). The total area dedicated to sweet corn production for the year to March 1997 was 5433 hectares. The gross value of production for sweet corn for the year to March 1997 was $26.5 m, a decrease of $8.9 m over the previous period. This is similarly reflected in the drop in volume produced in 1997.
Major production regions
| Region | Agro-ecological region | Area (ha) |
Production (t) |
Value ($m) |
% of total crop area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central West, NSW | Temperate highlands/ temperate slopes & plains | 770 | 9 750 | 2.4 | 14 |
| Lockyer Valley, Qld | Subtropical slopes & plains/ wet subtropical coast | 650 | 7 890 | 3.6 | 12 |
| Riverina, NSW | Temperate slopes & plains | 650 | 12 550 | 3.1 | 12 |
| Bowen, Qld | North-east wet/dry tropics | 600 | 3 600 | 1.6 | 11 |
| East Gippsland, Vic | Temperate highlands | 280 | 3 670 | 3.6 | 5 |
| Central Macquarie, NSW | Temperate slopes & plains | 270 | 4 520 | 1.1 | 5 |
| Burdekin, Qld | North-east wet/dry tropics | 140 | 140 | 0.1 | 3 |
| Central Murrumbidgee, NSW | Temperate highlands | 140 | 2 300 | 0.6 | 3 |
| Northern Tablelands, NSW | Temperate highlands | 120 | 960 | 0.2 | 2 |
| Burnie-Devonport, Tas | Wet temperate coasts | 120 | 2 230 | 0.4 | 2 |
 |
Production, production trends and exportsExports of sweet corn were 1495 tonnes in 1997/98. The majority of this went to Japan (1359 tonnes) and New Zealand (118 tonnes). |
Industry contact
AusVeg: RMB 5307, Strathbogie, Victoria 3666; telephone: (03) 5790 5247
Production and value data sources
Horticultural Research and Development Corporation 2000, Horticultural Productivity and Sustainability Project
Australian Bureau of Statistics 1996, AgStats 1996-97
National Land and Water Resources Audit 2000, non-agricultural land mask from 1:1 000 000 Landuse in Australia
Agriculture Fisheries Forestry - Australia 1996, Agro-ecological Regions of Australia
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