Wine Australia says sector well placed amid slowing exports

Wine Australia’s annual report reveals exports to countries outside of China are down 11 per cent, as Riverina grape growers grapple with another year of below cost of production prices.

Wine Australia believes the wine sector is well placed and looking to improve, amid slowing exports and another year of below cost of production prices for wine grape growers.

The research and development corporation’s annual report showed the reopening of the China market drove a 13 per cent increase in wine exports, or $2.48bn in value in 2024-25 - but exports were 35 per cent smaller for the June 2025 quarter, compared with the same time last year, indicating that initial steep growth slowing.

Wine Australia chair Michelle Allan said the federal government’s focus on productivity in coming years meant “we can be confident our sector is both well placed and looking to improve”.

Lee McLean – CEO of Australian Grape & Wine

Exports to the rest of the world declined by 11 per cent (value to $1.59bn) in 2024-25.

The report stated the total 2025 winegrape crush was estimated to be 1.57 million tonnes, valued at $1.13bn.

This is eight per cent below the ten-year average, but 11 per cent higher than 2024.

Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Lee McLean said the decline in exports was not just an Australian phenomenon, but one facing almost all producing nations amid a decline in wine consumption globally.

“One of the first things we should be doing is trying to better understand what markets want and catering to that … we need to be making sure we are doing everything we can to keep on diversifying, and that’s something we need to do with government as well,” he said.

Mr McLean said “we’re a little bit behind where we need to be”, but that “there are a number of initiatives that are coming into place now, that I think are really going to drive some productivity gains”.

That includes the design of a national vineyard register and investment into water and land use efficiency, for a sector that so far contributes as much as $51.3bn to the Australian economy.

Riverina Winegrape Growers chief executive Jeremy Cass said his growers were looking down the barrel of pretty low prices for the coming year after four years of below cost of production prices, with the Riverina losing another few thousand hectares of vineyard in the past 12 months.

“The transition at the beginning was guys that saw the writing on the wall and they got rid of older vines and started planting things like citrus where they had the ability to do so,” he said.

“Then there were the other guys that hung on and wanted to ride it out, and we’re now seeing them starting to slip off a perch just because they haven’t got the funds to keep (going).”

Mr Cass said the sector was awaiting the federal government’s response to the Emerson report into the wine sector handed down in July.