Farmers to reap $49 billion harvest Blyth farmer Kev Pratt with his daughter Greta (5) in his canola crop near Snowtown, SA. Picture: Sam Wundke. THE outlook for Australian farmers is expected to improve as the gross value of farm production reaches a record $49 billion in 2013-14, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said yesterday. The strong forecasts include record net cash income for farms of $16.5 billion across the industry, up 6.1 per cent on the previous year. Releasing the September edition of Agricultural Commodities, the bureau's executive director Paul Morris said it was the fourth year in a row that the value of farm production is expected to exceed $46 billion. ``This continues the recovery in the farm sector from the drought-affected decade of the 2000s," Mr Morris said. ``However, improved returns are not the universal experience across the sector, with some producers still suffering from adverse seasonal conditions and other producers facing declining prices for their products. The value of exports is also expected to remain firm, but with a slight easing to $37.2 billion, down from the record high of $38 billion last year. Mr Morris said that at this level, farm export earnings will be about 8pc higher than the average in the past decade. The report shows that agricultural exports to China continue to soar, reaching $7.26 billion in 2012-13 and more than doubling in the past three years. Sales to China rose on the back of a more than 300 per cent rise in cropping income to $3.48 billion and surging meat and live animal income, up from $60 million to $616 million, in the past three years. Mr Morris said the recent depreciation of the Australian dollar to a forecast 92 cents this year will provide support for the nation's export and import competing industries. But the exchange rate remains relatively high in historical terms compared to its average of US75 cents in the past two decades. The bureau's predictions show that crop exports will decline by 8.1pc to $21.2 billion this financial year, following a 6.6pc rise in 2012-13. In contrast, livestock and livestock product exports are forecast to increase by 7.6pc to $16.1 billion, after rising by 1.4pc last year. The bureau predicts export earnings for beef and veal will rise by 6pc, dairy products by 15pc and wine by 8pc. Growth in livestock and livestock product earnings has been helped by higher world prices for dairy products and lamb, and the depreciation of the Australian dollar. But the increase is expected to be offset by lower export earnings for wheat (down 4pc), canola (33pc) and cotton (16pc). The decline in grains and oilseeds returns is, in part, a result of a decline in world prices for grains and oilseeds due to increased supplies in the United States and the Black Sea region, the bureau said. Forestry product export earnings are also forecast to increase by 6pc to $2.2 billion in 2013-14, following a decline of 8.4pc to $2 billion in 2012-13. Likewise, export earnings from fisheries products are forecast to rise by 6pc to $1.2 billion, following a drop of 4.2 per cent last year. A feature of the report is a decline in farm bank debt, down from $63.4 billion at June 30, 2009 to $58.6 billion at March 31, 2013, helped by a reduction in new borrowings and continued debt repayments.