Thread by @GongGasGirl

The Australian Wine Industry in the 2020's. The challenges and a few solutions.

Christopher Barnes.

Senior Lecturer Wine Technology and Viticulture.

#ACE22TAS

Love this talk. Every industry can teach us lessons.

The glass is indeed half full.

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How big is the wine industry in Australia?

Over 2000 wineries in Au. 6000 grape growers. Employ 163,790 people. In 65 wine growing regions. $45 billion contribution to the Australian economy.

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Winegrape crush 2022 1.73 million tonnes, (650 - 700L per tonne of fruit)

(Language alert: In the wine industry fruit means grape, look at it means taste)

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Loads of fruit left on the vine in 2022 -

13.5% below recorded crush of 2 million tonnes in 2021.

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Average wine grape purchase price decrease by 10% to $630 per tonne.

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Average value for reds decreased, while whites increased.

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Wine export report last year for Au.

China market has collapsed.

Total export value of 2.08B was 3 billion before - loss of 1/3 of exports in a short space of time.

Live or die by export ...

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Au is the 6th biggest exporter of wine by volume in the world, however only produces 5% of global volume. We are leaders in irrigation compared to competitors.

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Challenges for the wine industry:

climate change
cost of power
sustainability and consumer perceptions of 'clean and green'
international trade barriers
supply chain
skills and labour shortage
anti-alcohol lobby
vineyard and vine health

These challenges are not unique to wine industry. Nothing operates in a vacuum. #ACE22TAS

Excessive consumption of alcohol is a community problem across all alcohol products. For wine, cask product is a particular issue. How can the industry wisely navigate this?

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Climate change is causing 'Vintage compression' - fruit getting riper in a smaller timeframe.This is the reason wineries can have multiple varieties of grapes at the same cellar door. Can harvest at diff times, use the same gear to process. Can't do this if all ripe at same time

Need a huge amount of water to make wine. For the growing; but also cleaning all the equipment. I think he said 8L of water to get 1L wine. #ACE22TAS

Workforce challenge.

Short term covid related.
Longer term for semi-skilled due to international worker restrictions.
Lack of tertiary trained agriculture grads

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4 jobs for every agriculture graduate (!)

Bachelor of Agriculture will virtually guarantee employment in Australia at the moment ....

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Vineyard and vine health is problematic. Some pests are thriving in these changing conditions. Systemic viruses. Vines that are weak and moisture stress prone due to excess water, haven't put down tap roots when they were young (6 feet rather than 20 feet down).

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Just a quick refresher of the Kreb's cycle ... oh my help me!

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Supple chain blockages due to Ukrainian and covid related eg Glass bottles imported from Europe - Au doesn't make good bottles. However, this is silly because we think the wine is good if the bottle is heavy ..... and all our sustainability concerns out the windows

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So with all the challenges, why do we bother making wine at all?

‘Wine is not required to sustain life, but to many it makes it more liveable.’

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