Wine Industry Report

Key organisations within the Australian wine sector have established a Drought Management Taskforce to provide sufficient information to assist the Australian wine industry to plan its way through production impacts of the current drought.
The taskforce has been established by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA), Wine Grape Growers’ Australia (WGGA), Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation (AWBC), and Grape and Wine Research Development Corporation (GWDRC) in conjunction with State wine and grape grower associations in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. In each of these states some grapegrowing regions have seen river-borne irrigation water entitlements substantially reduced, and others placed under pressure due to greatly limited water supplies from sources such as dams and bores.

Senior industry representatives from Fosters Group, Pernod Ricard Pacific, McGuigan Simeon and Hardy Wine Company, in addition to a senior officer from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, are also represented on the taskforce, which has already met twice in December.

WFA policy director, Mr Doug Young, said the taskforce would meet on a regular basis throughout 2007, and possibly into 2008, to assist the wine industry to respond more effectively to reduced water availability.

“While the drought will undoubtedly have a short term impact on the Australian wine sector, the industry is working proactively to minimise any adverse impacts on production into the longer term,” Mr Young said.

“It is generally recognised that the Australian wine industry is an efficient user of water, however, like many other industries, it will need to find ways of working with less water. It’s all about more effective resource management and good planning.” said Mr Young.

Mr Young said the initial work of the taskforce would comprise collating Australian wine industry water use and water allocation data at a national and regional level. These data will be used to provide a better understanding of likely future grape harvests, based on various water availability scenarios.

WGGA executive director, Mr Mark McKenzie, said another early objective for the taskforce is to provide growers with practical information on how best to manage their vines under a range of reduced water allocation scenarios.

“If the drought continues into the 2008 growing season, some district water allocations could be reduced to very low levels which will obviously have a huge impact on growers in Australia’s major wine growing districts,” Mr McKenzie said.

In November, the AWBC released its supply-demand assessment for the Australian wine sector which forecast a 20% reduction in the national grape harvest for 2007 with the possibility of a similar vintage in 2008.