Industry calls for greater support for wine grape growers
Australia's $51bn wine industry faces an identity crisis as grape growers seek survival funding while government backs cellar door tourism.
Australian wineries have received a funding boost this week, but it’s money for grape growers that the industry sorely needs, Riverina Winegrape Growers chief executive Jeremy Cass says.
The federal government earlier this week announced $30m worth of new funding to support producers to sell their wine and cider products at cellar doors, with eligible producers able to apply for grants of up to $100,000.
Mr Cass said any support measures for an industry that has faced a mass exodus of growers since Chinese tariffs decimated exports were welcome, but that $30m aimed at growers instead of cellar door owners would have been more useful.
“When we look at cellar doors, the ones that do well are small ones in touristy places … the percentages of the large wineries going through cellar doors are really low,” he said.
Mr Cass said growers were facing issues around rising mental health concerns, sustainability of market access, and water usage in regards to the Murray Darling Basin Plan.
“We lend our board room out to a rural financial counsellor, and they said they had 33 people on their books at the moment. Thirty were winegrape growers,” he said.
“(That) $30m could have really helped the industry from a growers’ perspective get back into balance.”
But Murray Valley Winegrowers chair Chris Dent said if the grants could increase sales on the domestic front it was an advantage, and that there were other benefits to promoting wine sales through cellar doors rather than bigger retail stores.
“The industry is hurting at the moment, and Australians can be the first to help us get out of it,” he said.
“It’s good for tourism, bringing people to the regions, and helping not just the wine industry, but helping hospitality and accommodation and the like.
“There’s an indirect benefit for growers. Maybe the government has found it more logistically feasible than some of the other measures that can be a bit more trickier, in terms of handouts to growers.”
Australian Grape and Wine’s 2025-26 pre-budget submission to the federal government has asked for $30m to implement a sustainability support package for vineyard owners, and $78m over three years to stimulate export recovery.
However, Mr Cass said the only assistance for growers he had seen so far was a $3.5m grant for Wine Australia, while Trade Minister Don Farrell on Monday said that the government remained “committed to opening new export doors for our wine and cider exporters, providing opportunities to diversify trade”.
Mr Cass said another point of contention between the government and growers was the desired size of the industry, with the government spruiking its $51.3bn contribution to the economy this week.
“The wine industry has paid my way the whole life, and to say that we need to shrink it is very hard to say, but it’s unfortunately the truth,” he said.
“(But) we talk to politicians, and they want a big industry, but doing in that regard means it’ll be small and impotent.”
