Grapegrowing, winemaking and wine-related tourism contributes $51.3 billion to the Australian economy and supports more than 200,000 jobs, according to the Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector 2025 report released today by Wine Australia.
The independent report highlights a multiplying effect, where the flow-on from employment, product and experiences contributes significantly higher to the Australian economy than the initial farm gate value. This demonstrates the importance of the sector, particularly for Australia’s regional communities where wine is grown, made and provides a tourism drawcard.
Key report highlights:
- The Australian wine sector contributes $51.3 billion to the Australian economy, including $25.4 billion in value add and $15 billion in employment wages and salaries.
- The sector supports 203,392 direct and indirect jobs, most of which are located in regional Australia.
- For every additional $1 million in gross output from the wine sector, the Australian economy gains $2.16 million.
- For every job gained in the wine sector, the Australian economy gains 1.42 jobs.
Losses in the economic contribution of grapegrowing and winemaking have been offset by growth in wine tourism since 2019.
Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector 2025 was researched and produced by AgEcon Plus and Gillespie Economics and commissioned by Wine Australia.
Overall impact
The Australian wine sector (including grapegrowing, winemaking, and wine-related tourism) is a significant contributor to the Australian economy.
It directly contributes through output and employment, and indirectly through flow-on effects to supplier industries for growing grapes, making wine and wine tourism experiences as well as goods and services used by employees.
According to the report, the Australian wine sector contributes $51.3 billion to the economy. This includes $25.4 billion in value-added, which is the difference between the gross value of the business turnover and the costs of raw materials and services to produce the output. The overall economic contribution also includes $15 billion in wages and salaries for 203,392 direct and indirect employees, most of which live and work in regional Australia.
This indicates that the sector is very important to the vitality of Australian regional communities. It provides direct employment and production in regions and has flow-on production-induced effects (purchases of goods and services used in the production of grapes, wine, and wine tourism) and flow-on consumption-induced effects (the spending of wine sector employees).
As a result, for every additional $1 million in gross output from the wine sector, the wider Australian economy gains $2.16 million and for every job gained in the wine sector, the Australian economy gains 1.42 jobs, according to the report.
A similar report was produced in 2019, but direct comparison is not possible due to changes in data, refinements in modelling methods, and the impact of inflation. However, when looking at the two “snapshots in time”, the losses in economic contribution of grape growing and wine making have been offset by growth in wine tourism. Overall, the gross output of the sector has grown by about 2.1 per cent per annum since 2019, which is less than the national rate of inflation.
Grapegrowing
The economic contribution of the grapegrowing sector on its own is $3.2 billion, supporting 11,955 direct and indirect jobs.
Source: Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector 2025
Because of the relatively low wages and profits in the grapegrowing sector, its multipliers for flow-on employment and value add are above a ratio of 4 (see table 12 from the report above), meaning that grape growing enables a significant amount of value to be generated down the supply chain and wider economy.
Although the grapegrowing sector is relatively small when it comes to crop production in Australia (see Figure 1), the flow-on effects of this sector are significant.
Figure 1: Production of crops in Australia 2023-24
Source: ABARES Agricultural Commodities June 2025
Winemaking
The economic contribution of the winemaking sector is $17.8 billion, supporting 54,741 direct and indirect jobs.
Source: Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector 2025
Wine exports are relatively small when it comes to Australia’s total agricultural exports (see Figure 2) and total sales (exports and domestic) amounted to $5.7 billion in 2023–24.
However, due to production and consumption induced flow-on effects, the total economic contribution is well over $17 billion (see table above). The flow-on effects for employment sees the winemaking sector support an additional 17,777 jobs in supplier industries and 21,552 jobs in goods and services wanted by winemaking employees.
Figure 2: Value of agricultural, fisheries, and forestry exports 2023-24
Source: ABARES Agricultural Commodities June 2025
To compare to another beverage alcohol industry, the Australian Brewers Association 2022 report on economic contribution reported that the beer industry, from barley growing to pouring pints, contributes $16 billion to the Australian economy. This is roughly equivalent to the economic contribution of wine making on its own, which does not include the value of the grapegrowing and wine tourism sectors. Adding these two subsectors to the total wine sector contribution is reflective of what makes the wine industry unique in its role in the Australian economy.
Wine tourism
Wine tourism is a significant contributor to the value of the Australian wine sector. It provides $34 billion in gross output and supports 150,155 employees.
Source: Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector 2025
Tourism Research Australia estimates that there were 7.5 million visits to wineries from both domestic and international travellers in the year ended December 2024. For those travellers that included a visit to a winery, they spent a combined $11.6 billion during their entire trip and are typically higher spenders with an average spend per trip of $1,487.
Source: Tourism Research Australia
While the grapegrowing and winemaking sectors have contracted between the 2019 and 2025 “snapshots”, the wine tourism sector has shown an increase in both gross output and employment. Although international winery visitors are still below the 2019 pre-COVID-19 number, overnight stays in wine regions by domestic visitors have increased.
Read more about the Australian wine sector’s economic contribution in the report here.