Wine industry fights for more Government

funds

June 2024 Wine industry representatives say they will fight for financial assistance after this week's federal budget left them disappointed. An oversupply of red wine and changing drinking habits among consumers has led to grape growers receiving historically low prices for their fruit and pulling out their vines while wine companies explore mergers. The fallout from the crisis is being felt acutely in South Australia's Riverland, Australia's largest wine producing region, where Maria Sialas is among several contractors assessing the viability of their businesses. Ms Sialas, from Renmark, who has been in the industry for almost 20 years, says the flow-on effects are plain to see. "We can already see it here — no-one has money to spend, no-one goes out to restaurants, no-one is buying tractors," she said on the ABC Radio. Ms Sialas said she had reduced the number of harvesters used for contracting and had been chasing late payments from growers months after harvest. Australian Grape and Wine requested an $86-million recovery package from the federal government in the latest budget, but no sector-specific funding was included in the announcement last week. The package included support for vineyard owners to rip out vines and plant other crops, assistance to develop export opportunities and a domestic marketing campaign. Federal Liberal Member for Barker Tony Pasin said the federal government needed to do more to address the crisis. "There was very little in the budget for the Riverland, but the most pressing is obviously the situation of the wine industry," he said. In a statement a government spokesperson said that the budget included several measures to assist the industry, including $2m to re-establish commercial connections in China and $487.9m for AusTrade's export market development grant program.

Greek Tribune Adelaide, South Australia