There’s strong sentiment in Australia’s agriculture sector – and some ASX stocks delving in it – thanks to strong commodity prices and perfect summer weather.

Rabobank’s latest Rural Confidence Survey found that Australian farmer sentiment was at one of the top 10 levels in the survey’s 20-year history.

Only seven per cent of farmers have a pessimistic outlook and 68 per cent of farmers expect conditions to improve further.

Rabobank’s CEO Peter Knoblance labelled the 12-month turnaround, when the industry faced COVID-19 uncertainty and drought conditions, “extraordinary”.

“This year it seems all the fundamentals are lining up. We’ve had near-perfect seasonal conditions over summer for much of the country and commodity prices are very solid,” he said.

“Combined with low interest rates and a number of government incentives, farmers are, generally speaking, in a good place right now.”

The average ASX agriculture stock is up 88 per cent in 12 months but a handful have done even better.

 

Top ASX agriculture stocks

Wide Open Agriculture (ASX:WOA) is the best performing ASX agriculture stock, sitting on a 550 per cent gain.

It is one of the few ASX stocks in plant-based foods and while it is no Beyond Meat just yet, it has continued to make strides. It sells its own range of plant-based foods, Dirty Clean Food.

Last month it signed an agreement with Curtin University to conduct early stage product development on food-grade lupin protein to use for burgers, milk powder and pasta.

Another is diversified food group Maggie Beer Holdings (ASX:MBH) which is up over 300 per cent. Its products include the Paris Creek and St David Dairy ranges which are sourced from South Australian and Victorian farmers respectively.

The handful of cannabis stocks that act as cultivators have seen solid years too such as Australian Primary Hemp (ASX:APH) which is up 422 per cent, ECS Botanics (ASX:ECS) up 143 per cent and Little Green Pharma (ASX:LGP) up 128 per cent.

Rounding out the list of top ASX agriculture stocks is $8m stock Australian Agricultural Projects (ASX:AAP) which owns an olive orchard in Victoria.

The company saw a poor harvest last year but recently reported to shareholders that the upcoming harvest would be a significant improvement.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While ECS Botanics is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

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