New opportunities to boost growth for the Australian grape and wine community

Wine Australia welcomes the $50 million investment announced by the Australian Government that will underpin export growth and domestic wine-related tourism for the Australian wine sector, which currently contributes $40.2 billion to the Australian economy.

Wine Australia Chair Brian Walsh said, ‘The grape and wine sector brings together agriculture, sophisticated production and tourism and it is a vital part of the rich fabric of regional Australia.
‘We welcome this initiative and we look forward to working closely with the grape and wine sector to design and implement the $50 million support package to help boost domestic wine-related tourism and export assistance.

‘Wine is a unique, high-quality product created in Australia’s 65 wine regions by highly skilled winegrape growers and winemakers. These new measures will help build regional employment and increase the wine sector’s contribution to the Australian economy’, he said.

Under the initiative, Wine Australia will coordinate a range of initiatives to help regional wine producers and export-focused businesses to continue to grow.

This package comes at an important time given that in the last 12 months, wine exports have grown 13 per cent and now earn wine exporters $2.1 billion. 

Background

Independent economic research commissioned by Wine Australia has quantified the direct and indirect contribution of the Australian wine sector to the national economy.

‘Economic Contribution of the Australian Wine Sector’ by AgEconPlus and Gillespie Economics shows that the Australian wine sector – defined as winegrape growing, winemaking and wine-related tourism:

• supports 172,736 full- and part-time jobs, most of which are located in regional Australia. 
• contributes $40.2 billion to the value of gross output to the Australian economy. Gross output includes $19.7 billion in value (value-added or the difference between the cost of goods and their sale price) and $10.4 billion in wages and salaries from full- and part-time employment. These figures do not capture margins on wine sales through wholesale, retail and restaurant sales.

Wine-related tourism accounts for 15.8 million domestic visitor nights and 44.2 million international visitor nights. An integral part of Australia’s tourist offering, wine-related tourism contributes $9.2 billion to the economy.

The Australian wine sector has approximately 5,160 grapegrowers, 135,178 ha of vines, 2,900 wineries and produces 1.2 billion litres of wine.