Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 6:24:54 to 6:31:18
Officials detail the $4.6 million viability support package and the development of a National Vineyard Register intended to provide transparency for growers and makers.
Topics: Agricultural research and levies, Exports
Speakers: Speaker 18, Speaker 28, Speaker 12
be honest, a National Vineyard Register is actually not going to address the issues that they have before them. And quite frankly, $4.6 $6 million is not going to do terribly much. So keen to understand what um measures are in place if any from the federal government to support um say the wine industry um penetrating um you know alternative markets to China because we all know that part a large part of this has been driven by um the significant shrinkage in the China market for wine. Um so what what measures are in place that you're
aware of? There are seven more measures we can um talk to and the next of which um Mr. Denny will lead you through is the inmarket export development which is looking at penetrating um a range of a range of different prospective market
>> and how much is that worth? >> So that's part of that $4.66 um million package. Um so that's funding that wine Australia has received to place um offices in market in the UN United States and Southeast Asia. So um doing trade shows and um missions in in those sectors. Um I should say before I work through the other um six measures that are part of that strategy um because you mentioned South Australia um so specifically for South Australia on the 21st of January, Minister Collins announced $3.1 million as part of a um um support package for the wine industry. Um so that is funding that that the South Australian government is administering. Um it includes um support to manage waste um to build local demand um to build local capability and um most recently um to rest to support that the third tranch of that resting vineyard um rebate. So
>> So how much is the wine industry in the
Riverland worth >> in the Riverland? I don't have um the figures for the Riverland specifically. So, so it's the 4 um 4.6 million nationally as part of the long-term viability support package and then specifically for South Australia and additional 3.1 million that was announced on the 21st of January and that's administered by the state government. >> Okay. >> Um the other um measures as part of the 4.6 million just to go back to where we were >> um is some funding for as part of that 4.6 6 million for a domestic campaign which wine Australia ran um which was um there was there's a wine for that which gave tools and templates for local producers to to build off that was quite successful um research to diversify into other products um research into lighter alcohol products um and then there was also um funding to undertake uh to examine fair trading practices in the sector. Yeah.
>> And look, I'm not suggesting that none that these things aren't good good initiatives, but I'm just trying to understand when you've got 70 million bottles of wine, a glut as we sit here right now in storage with, you know, the vintage 30 seconds away. Um, you've got an industry that's worth $6 billion that we've chucked $4.6 million plus the additional $3.1 million. We've got growers who basically are either leaving their grapes on the vine because they can't even afford to put them on the ground. You've got all the biocurity risks that are associated with neglected vineyards with fruit on them. Um, and nothing you've told me so far has shown that appears to have done anything about trying to structurally adjust the sector or to work with the sector. Um, doesn't appear as if anybody's even spoken to the growers in the Riverland. I don't know whether that's the same experience in other regions. So, um you know, has there been any direct financial or structural response to the wine industry? Um because I mean this hasn't just happened this year. This has been a cumulative effect over a number of years and quite frankly I've lived through quite a few ups and downs in the wine industry. I've never seen anything like this. Um is there any sort of discussion at all about structural response to a sector that quite frankly won't exist in
a minute in my region? >> So um it was considered as part of the uh consultations that happened through the working group. Um and the the working group didn't recommend a you know vinepool scheme or a structural adjustment package. Um I think cognizant of the unintended consequences that something like that can have when government intervenes in the market. Um we have seen similar things done in the past and um it has had had unintended consequences I guess where we've we've either lost valuable wines or we weren't um vines sorry or we weren't able to then respond to further demand um that happened separately. So, so the things that the government is focusing on is giving growers and the industry the tools to make the decisions it needs to make for for the for their own businesses. Uh and then on the demand side doing as much as we can um with Wine Australia as the regulator. Um but also with the industry in building demand across the world, opening up new markets. So we're doing that bilaterally. We have a a joint dialogue with the Indian government. Um we've got um agreements with with the UK um and then setting uh I guess uh good arrangements for international trade in wine to make it easier to trade in wine. So in international forums like the international organization of vine and wine and the worldwide group where Australia has a really strong presence. So, um doing what we can on the demand side and diversifying markets, giving farmers and growers the tools to make the decisions that are best for their for their own um businesses and also looking at the relationships between growers and wine makers through through the um proposed new um code of conduct um and uh making sure that there is fair trading in the sector as well.