Riverland growers call for help to make tough water decisions following this week’s hailstorm
Riverland growers are calling for grape prices to be released earlier to help them decide whether to sell off valuable water, in the wake of this week’s hailstorm.
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Gurpinder Sidhu says he’s going to have to look for a second income.
Most of the winegrape crop on his family’s Glossop property was destroyed in Monday’s freak hailstorm, which ravaged the Riverland.
He says he will now look into another business venture so the family’s income is less vulnerable in future years.
“Personally, I need to recover from this and once we’re out of it I’ll start thinking about a second option,” Mr Sidhu said. “I’ll keep farming because that’s in my blood but I’ll definitely have a second business other than farming.”
His neighbour Darren Kennedy has added sultanas to his property so in future, he will have two income sources.
Riverland growers are still counting the costs of Monday’s storm, with a detailed estimate of its economic impact expected in coming weeks.
Early estimates suggested it could go north of $100 million.
Meanwhile, irrigator groups say an earlier release of grape price estimates would help Riverland growers make tough decisions about whether to sell their water to help stay afloat.
Growers, hit by the storm are paying almost $1000/ML for water and are calling for wineries to give early advice on what prices they’ll receive during a March harvest.
Riverland Wine executive chair Chris Byrne said wineries released estimates in December, but bringing this forward would provide growers much more certainty. “It’s difficult to decide whether to continue growing a crop that might have been affected or to mothball their grapes for the year and lease the water out,” Mr Byrne said. “At today’s prices of $950ML they can be very much assured of a reasonably good return per hectare.
“But without knowing their wine grape prices its very difficult to make that calculation as to whether they’re better off.”
Wineries’ price estimates are calculated based on a range of factors including demand.
CCW Co-operative Limited represents more than 500 Riverland growers, and its chairman Ashley Chabrel said his group was advocating for an earlier price release.
Mr Chabrel said this was particularly important in the wake of Monday’s storm. During the Millennium drought, growers received word on pricing around October, allowing them to decide not to water their blocks if it wasn’t commercially viable.
Labor yesterday called upon the State Government to provide financial support for growers to help replant lost crops and fund repair works.
Primary Industries Minister Tim Whetstone said the Government immediately set up a storm response centre and three family business and support mentors were available to help.