Agribusiness was dealt a tough month in October, dropping 4 per cent in the Australian Agribusiness Group’s (AAG’s) Agri-Index compared to a 3 per cent fall in the All Ordinaries.
AAG reported falls across all Agri-Index subsectors, with the diversified sector dropping 8 per cent, producer 6 per cent and manufacturer 4 per cent.
The overall decrease across agribusiness was lower than the 3 per cent fall in the All Ordinaries.
Tim Lee, director, AAG, defended the sector, noting that despite October’s result, “agribusiness has added an impressive 9 per cent for the financial year to date as shown by the improvement in the AAG Agri-Index”.
Lee was optimistic about the sector, saying the 4 per cent fall “is not significant enough to create any major concerns”.
“The AAG Agri-Index is expected to continue a firm recovery over financial year 2009-10.”
Lee said there were some “outstanding agribusiness winners” in October, noting further that Australian renewable fuels was the highest performing equity on the index.
“The recent trend towards affirmative environmental action has opened the gate for certain agribusinesses to develop a leg up in the market,” Lee said.
