abares

name	abares
description	Fetch Australian agricultural data from ABARES (DAFF) — commodity outlook tables, crop reports, annual commodity statistics, and weekly price data. Use this skill when the user asks about Australian crop production, livestock, grain prices, commodity forecasts, agricultural statistics, or the ABARES Agricultural Commodities report, even if they don't name ABARES or DAFF directly.
allowed-tools	bash

ABARES

Fetch data from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES), the research arm of DAFF. Covers quarterly commodity forecasts, crop reports, annual historical statistics, and weekly prices.

Scripts

abares

scripts/abares <command> [args...]

Command	Description
discover	List all available reports with IDs and file types.
commodities	Download latest outlook and statistical tables.
crops	Download latest national crop and state data.
annual-stats [--commodity C]	Download annual commodity statistics by commodity.
weekly-prices	Current weekly price table as TSV.
fetch <asset-id> <index>	Download a specific file by ID and file index.

Options:

Option	Applies to	Description
--commodity <name>	annual-stats	Commodity to fetch (substring, e.g. wheat, beef).
--list	annual-stats	Print all available commodities and exit.

Examples:

scripts/abares discover

scripts/abares commodities
scripts/abares crops

scripts/abares annual-stats --list
scripts/abares annual-stats --commodity wheat
scripts/abares annual-stats --commodity beef

scripts/abares weekly-prices

scripts/abares fetch 1038003 2

parse-xlsx

Parse downloaded XLSX files to TSV. Uses Python stdlib only — no pip packages.

scripts/parse-xlsx <file.xlsx> [sheet] [--max-rows N] [--max-cols N]

Option	Description
sheet	Sheet index (0-based) or name. Omit to list sheets.
--max-rows N	Limit output rows (default: all).
--max-cols N	Limit output columns (default: all).

Examples:

scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx                         # list sheets
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 0                       # first sheet, all rows
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 0 --max-rows 20         # first 20 rows
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 1 --max-cols 6          # second sheet, first 6 cols
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx "Crops" --max-rows 10   # sheet by name

Workflows

Fetch and inspect latest commodities forecast

scripts/abares commodities
scripts/parse-xlsx /tmp/abares-*/2

Get current grain and livestock prices

scripts/abares weekly-prices

Get historical wheat statistics

scripts/abares annual-stats --commodity wheat
scripts/parse-xlsx /tmp/abares-*/20

Browse available reports, then download one

scripts/abares discover
scripts/abares fetch 1038221 2
scripts/parse-xlsx /tmp/abares-*/2  0 --max-rows 50

Gotchas

• IDs are not predictable — each report gets a new asset ID. Always use discover or the convenience commands to find the latest. Never guess IDs.
• Landing page may lag — the online catalogue is updated manually and may trail report publication by days. The June 2026 report (ID 1038221) appeared before the landing page was updated from March 2026 (ID 1038003). Use fetch with a known ID if you have one.
• File indexes vary over time — older reports (pre-2023) sometimes use different indexes for the same file type (e.g. index 1 instead of 2 for outlook tables). The discover command reflects actual indexes for each report.
• Sheet 0 is a table of contents — parse-xlsx sheet lists show "Index" as the first sheet. This sheet contains only the report title and links, not data. Real data starts at sheet 1 ("Key macro", "Major indicators", etc.).
• XLSX only — all downloadable data tables are multi-sheet Excel files. Use parse-xlsx to convert to TSV.
• Historical forecast database is a separate static asset (ID 1031941, covering 2000–2019), not automatically discovered. Fetch with: scripts/abares fetch 1031941 0.

Release schedule

Report	Frequency
Agricultural Commodities	Quarterly (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec)
Australian Crop Report	Quarterly (Mar, Jun, Sep, Dec)
Agricultural Commodity Statistics	Annual (Apr–May)
Weekly prices	Every Thursday

Annual commodity statistics index

scripts/abares annual-stats --list

Index	Commodity
0	Australian economy overview
1	Macroeconomic indicators
2	Farm sector
3	Coarse grains
4	Cotton
5	Dairy
6	Farm inputs
7	Fisheries
8	Food
9	Forestry
10	Horticulture
11	Meat — general
12	Beef and veal
13	Pigs and poultry
14	Sheep
15	Oilseeds
16	Pulses
17	Rice
18	Sugar
19	Wool
20	Wheat
21	Wine