The Asian market is far, far bigger than just China, Australian agribusinesses and farmers have been told as annual farm exports to Southeast Asian nations rake in billions of dollars more than those to China.

A new report from agribusiness banking experts at ANZ sees Australian farm exports to the 10 ASEAN nations climbing significantly over coming years, propelled by rising incomes and a growing middle class in the region, rising meat consumption, decreasing farmland, rising demand for Australian grains and a growing interest in dairy produce.

The latest ANZ Agri-InFocus report said ASEAN nations would consume about 285 million tonnes of soft commodities by 2024-25, a jump of more than 60 million tonnes.

The report confirmed that Australian farm exports to the 10 ASEAN nations in 2016 - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - were valued at almost $8.8 billion. This was well ahead of the value of the country's farm exports to China in the same period -   almost $5.5 billion.

So while the China market gets more attention, export earnings from sales to ASEAN nations are greater and the potential for further growth is healthy.