The South Australian government has announced a $109 million support package for the state's wine industry, which has been in crisis since the pandemic, China's ban on Australian wine and a global fall in wine drinking left a glut of red wine. South Australia is home to the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the Riverland.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said $100 million would go to loans to help growers move into other crops — up to $250,000 for smaller growers and $500,000 for larger entities, with no principal or interest repayments for the first two years. Expressions of interest open online next week. The package also funds the disposal of chemically treated vine posts, including a regional storage site, work on surplus wine inventories, and a two-year extension of the Global Wine Growth Program to build overseas demand.

The aim is to tackle oversupply by helping small and large growers diversify. Riverland Liberal MP and former grape grower Tim Whetstone, who has called for such help for years, welcomed the announcement but said growers were 'in a state of paralysis' without more detail; shadow primary industries minister Nicola Centofanti questioned the 7.2% interest rate that applies once the two-year reprieve ends, calling it closer to a commercial than a concessional rate.

The scale of the distress is stark. Freestone Estate chief executive Lucy Clements estimated that 10–15% of the state's wine grape growers have already left the industry, and CCW Co-operative figures show 72% of Riverland wine grape operations recorded losses in the most recent season, with some red grape growers paid $150 a tonne against production costs of $300. Riverland Wine chief executive Andrew Weeks said many vines had simply been 'turned off' rather than pulled out while growers decided whether to stay.

Mr Malinauskas said the package was designed to give everyone in the $2.4 billion industry an equitable way forward and had taken time because an oversupply, unlike a natural disaster, had to be answered carefully.

Source: ABC Rural