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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