New England AARES & BEPP Wine Symposium: Local Industry and Researchers combine
Friday 13 August 2-5 pm
“Where there is plenty of wine, sorrow and worry take wing”
– Anonymous
Introduction
Wine in New England
Over the past twenty years, the New England-North west region has developed a significant, burgeoning viticultural, winemaking and wine tourism industry. This emergent industry has broadened the agricultural, economic and cultural diversity of the region, culminating in the achievement of regional status for New England Australia in January 2008, and moving from wine making to increasingly embrace wine tourism. The now industry boasts dozens of vineyards, inclusive of cellar doors and restaurants.
National Trends: The Wine Boom
In many ways, this growth in the wine industry in New England is in line with national trends. For example, from 1990-91 to 2007-08, the total vine bearing area of grapes increased from some 61 thousand hectares to 166 thousand hectares, with production expanding from 346 million litres to 1.257 billion litres. Export volume increased from 57 million litres to a little over 714 million litres in the same time period, with the value of exports rising from $180 million to $2.68 billion. And most of us have been drinking for Australia, with domestic consumption increasing from 17.8 litres to 29 litres per annum.
Nor has this been merely a quantum expansion in industry size. Yes, the number of wineries increased from some six hundred in 1990-91 to almost nineteen hundred in 2004-05. Perhaps more importantly, both grape growing and wine production are now dispersed across a broad area of the country, with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics recently listing no fewer than eighty six wine producing regions and as many subregions. This stands in stark contrast to the malaise often presented as typical of rural and regional Australia, of struggling and dying communities, family farms collapsing and under-funded government services.
National Trends: The Wine Bust?
Yet recently the souring of this picture has been commensurate with the boom. While the wine crush continued to increase from 2006-07 to 2007-08, the value of wine sold domestically declined by 4% in the same year. At the same time, the figures for exports became increasingly worrying, with overall quantity dropping 9.2% over the same year, and the unit value decreasing from $5.17 per litre in 2000-01 to a projected $3.51 for 2010-11. And yes, we are drinking a lot more New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (and other imported wines), with the value of imported wine increasing by 40.8% in 2007-08 from 2006-07, with imported wine projected to reach 18% of domestic consumption by 2013-14. ABARE has recognised the multi-dimensional nature of the problem, in several reports over a number of years, citing an increase in global competition, changing drinking patterns in major export markets and a strong Australian currency as contributing factors.
Future of New England Australia
Against this background, the New England branch of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society and the School of Business, Economics and Public Policy have brought together researchers and leaders in the local industry in the form of a Wine Symposium to be held Friday 13 August 2010 from 2-5 pm. The aim of the Symposium is to discuss prospects and opportunities for the local wine industries and potential collaborations with UNE, in particular members of AARES and BEPP. The timetable is as follows. Sessions will be followed by informal discussion, finger food and a tasting of select wines from New England Australia.
Timetable
Link to Timetable (pdf)
For more information please contact a member of the Organising Committee, Professor Euan Fleming, Dr Stuart Mounter or Mr Bligh Grant.
