Soybean crops on New South Wales' North Coast have been ruined by the flooding in late February. 

Tony Carusi grows soybeans, rice and cane in Kilgin on the Richmond river near Broadwater Mill.

He lost 100 per cent of his soybeans.

"The flood we experienced on the 28th of February was of biblical proportions ... two to 2.5 metres higher than this whole district has ever experienced before, it has just been catastrophic."

Across the soybean industry, farmers are suffering similar losses.

Nathan Ensbey is a soybean farmer and soybean technical officer at the NSW Department of Primary Industries in Lismore. He has faced total crop losses.

"I had about 40 hectares of soybeans planted and I've had a 100 per cent wipe-out there."

Mr Ensby said across the region, about 10,000 hectares of soybean are usually planted, but this year, because of the rain, only 7,000 were planted.

Seventy-five per cent of that area was then wiped out in the February flooding.

"The ongoing rain has wiped out another 20 per cent of the crop, so we're now left with about 5 per cent of the total crop."

He said it had been almost total crop losses for soybean growers in the region.

The North Coast grows high-end, high-value soybeans for human consumption in foods such as tofu.

The farmgate value of soybean on the North Coast was estimated to be about $20 million, Mr Ensby said, so 95 per cent losses represented a huge blow to local industry, local resellers and local manufacturing plants.

He said it was also estimated that another $20 million had been lost through through the supply chain.

Meanwhile, Mr Carusi said he was wondering how to go about the recovery.

Apart from losing his soybeans, he lost 79 hectares of rice, most of his sugar cane and 100 head of cattle worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

His machinery and tractors have been damaged, but he has only received $15,000 of a $75,000 grant so far.

Source - https://www.abc.net.au