“We have also seen changes across the agriculture supply chain, with transport, manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses surveyed across New South Wales reporting a stronger result than this time last year,” Westpac Regional Manager, Mr Andrew Davis said.

The thirteenth quarterly survey also reports 96 per cent of agribusinesses surveyed in the Richmond-Tweed district are aware a carbon trading system may be introduced in the future, up from 81 per cent when the same question was asked in July 2007.

This compares to 96 per cent for New South Wales and 95 per cent across Australia.

“Most agribusinesses are aware that a carbon trading scheme of some sort may be introduced. As would be expected from such an innovative industry there are some remarkable efforts underway, mainly in reducing emissions,” Mr Davis said.

Mr Davis said that Westpac is committed to helping its agribusiness customers to plan and respond to the challenges of climate change.

“Westpac is taking the lead in researching the carbon market and keeping our customers informed and we’ll be running information sessions during 2010 on carbon’s financial implications.

“Since 1996 we’ve reduced our own carbon footprint by around 40%. We are well placed to help educate Westpac customers about future carbon trading issues,” Mr Davis said.

Westpac and CSU Agribusiness Index survey co-ordinator and CEO of CSU’s Western Research Institute, Tom Murphy, noted that the Economic Performance Indicator (EPI) for the Richmond-Tweed region was -0.20 for the quarter, compared with a national result of +0.04 and a New South Wales average of +0.01.

The EPI ranges between -1 (worst result) and +1 (best result) based on the average of results for business performance, employment and investment indicators. A “satisfactory” result is when the EPI is zero.