The Australian horticulture industry contributes around A$7 billion per year to the Australian economy, making it the third largest agricultural industry in Australia. The industry is extremely diverse and comprises fruit, nuts, nursery, extractive crops, cut flowers and turf production. Some 64 000 people are employed in the industry, in growing and in downstream processing facilities, equating to around 20 per cent of total agricultural employment in Australia.

Australia is known as a producer of high quality, pest and disease free produce. The industry also has the competitive advantage of counter seasonality to northern hemisphere markets, and Australia has significant climatic diversity which enables the growing of a vast range of produce.