Wine package announced to help industry pivot

The South Australian government has announced a $109 million wine industry support package to help address the current challenges facing the wine industry.

Speaking today at a press conference at Wolf Blass, Nuriootpa to announce the package, the Premier Peter Malinauskas, said that government involvement in the current crisis is necessary due to its scale and also the wine industry's importance to the state's economy and identity.

"We don't pretend for a moment as a government that a package like this solves every problem, it clearly doesn't...but we can help in a way that helps see the industry through, but also help growers for instance transition – that might then contribute to a reduction in supply that helps elevate the industry...," the Premier said.

"Our objective here is to make sure the parts of the industry that really need to survive for the benefit of everybody else do, and at the same time provide a platform for other parts of the industry to transition where they choose to do so through their own volition, and that's what underpins the thinking behind the package."

The key features of the package include a $100 million loan scheme that will be established to help growers wanting to transition unviable vineyards to more sustainable and higher-value land uses.

Eligible large scale growers will be able to access loans of up to $500,000, while smaller scale growers will have access to loans up to $250,000, with no principal or interest repayments required for the first two years of the loan.

A further $5 million has been announced to extend and expand the Global Wine Growth Program for a further two years to drive international demand for South Australian wine.

In addition, a targeted $675,000 advertising campaign will showcase South Australia’s premium food and wine, boosting tourism opportunities.

The Premier said Canada presents an opportunity as a market to target due to the recent US tariffs, as well as trying to re-establish the market in China following the removal of tariffs.

Other supports announced include $1 million over two years to provide growers with independent diversification planning advice to achieve sustainable transition outcomes, $500,000 over two years for assessment and development of industry-led solutions to address surplus wine inventories, and a new wine industry coordinator to identify and address barriers to an orderly transition and strengthen engagement between industry, government and regional stakeholders.

Planning changes have also been announced for The Riverland Economic Recovery Joint Amendment which will support winegrowers in the Riverland by facilitating housing and employment land, generating additional land use opportunities.

The Premier said the package had taken some time to put together as it had been done so in collaboration with The South Australian Wine Industry Association and local industry members.

He reassured that the support was not intended to dictate to local growers what crops they should or shouldn't grow or how many should be engaged in a transition, but to only provide a support for what direction they wished to go in.

"The last thing that anyone wants to see in the primary agricultural sector is government telling people what to grow and what not to grow," he said.

"...As a government we have absolute confidence in the people who work within the primary production sector, whether they're in agriculture, horticulture or in vineyards, these people run their industry, they know their properties, they know their soils."

For the full story see next week's edition of The Leader.