TENS OF MILLIONS of dollars worth of agricultural machinery and services changed hands during the biggest FarmFest in history last week.
Thousands of visitors flocked to Toowoomba to enjoy Queensland's biggest agricultural field days, with a new attendance record set for the three-day event.
ACM Rural Events group manager Kate Nugent said there was $124 million worth of goods and services exhibited at this year's event, making it the biggest in its history.
"This year's FarmFest gave everyone the feeling that we are back," Ms Nugent said.
"The stars really aligned for this year's event in regards to an absence of COVID-19 restrictions, great seasonal conditions and improved confidence in the agricultural sector.
"It was a phenomenal success and I think everyone felt a sense of being back in a big way."
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Featuring a vast array of farming and agricultural equipment and technology, Ms Nugent said all areas of this year's FarmFest enjoyed success in regard to sales.
"Overall, there would have been millions of dollars worth of goods and services sold to visitors from across the country," she said.
"From farm machinery, where there was $2.5 million recorded, construction sites were regularly seeing sales of $200,000 or more, while tool companies recorded $1 million in sales..
"It really was a phenomenal success and I think that was truly reflected in some of the feedback we have received from exhibitors, who have told us that they came home with no stock.
"It was not one area of product that was succeeding, the sales that were recorded were far ranging across Elders FarmFest 2022."
Having set an attendance goal of 60,000 visitors before this year's event, Ms Nugent said she was confident that number had be surpassed.
"I think it was a very different atmosphere compared to last year's event, which was interesting because FarmFest was one of the few lucky events to be staged last year, but there was still that cloud of being an event operating under a COVID atmosphere," she said.
"Whereas this year, we had fine weather across the three days, we most certainly had the strongest record of visitation that FarmFest has ever recorded.
"Our farmers, farming families and communities were out and about from across Queensland, northern NSW and as far away as Northern Territory.
"It was really far reaching in terms of visitation and I think that really had a positive impact on the local economy, based on the businesses I have spoken to."
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
