Summary

Riverland, Riverina and Murray Valley inland winegrape growers face significant challenges to long-term viability [i] driven by:

Constrained water supply from an over-allocated Murray-Darling Basin system. Water costs are projected to rise as the market shifts to higher value perennial crops.
Climate change driving vintage compression and extreme weather (e.g. hail, flooding, heatwave, out-of-season frost[i]). The Climate Atlas[ii] shows these regions amongst the ‘top/bottom ten’ for Growing Degree Days, Rainfall and Aridity. Climatic drift will see these regions become hotter and dryer.
Shifts in global market dynamics and associated local impacts. This includes recent trade bans highlighting the vulnerability of the region’s current bulk wine production. Consumers are shifting away from high alcohol and fortified wines[iii].
A current oversupply of red wine, particularly Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Approximately 40% of Australia’s wine is grown in the inland, and over 60% of its plantings are red varieties[iv].

This project will respond to these challenges and develop options to build resilient farm businesses:

Objective 1 will investigate new revenue options in 15 categories, and assess their suitability for the climate, agronomic, farm capacity and finances of inland grape growers.
Objective 2 will develop and trial a suite of interrelated resources and extension to support inland grape growers considering new revenue options, and identify farm business analysis needed to support farm diversification.
Objective 3 will establish and test an intuitive website to guide growers and service providers to, and through, the extension materials developed under Objective 2.

Program

New Enterprises

Research Organisation

RM Consulting Group Pty Ltd