| 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
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 0
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 0 --max-rows 20
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx 1 --max-cols 6
scripts/parse-xlsx report.xlsx "Crops" --max-rows 10
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 |
