According to a report in Reuters, up to a quarter of vines in growing areas such as Griffith must be pulled up to balance overproduction.
The report estimates that would destroy more than 20 million vines across 12,000 acres, or about 8% of Australia’s total area under vine.
Particularly impacted are the region’s cheaper red wines, a style which Australia has become renowned for.
But according to the report in Reuters, slowing demand has left Australia’s winemakers with more than two billion litres in storage, either to become waste or offloaded at cut-rate prices.
Last July, Wine Australia, the region’s industry body, published a report which revealed that in the year ending June 2023, exports fell by 10per cent in value and 1 per cent in volume.
The key drivers behind this fall were a reduction in lower-priced exports to the US and a continued decline in the UK, and the five-year tariffs imposed by China.
The decline of Australian wine mirrors wider trends for the category, according to the IWSR still wine volumes in 20 key markets fell by 4% in the first half of 2023.
In a recent report IWSR stated: “Major wine markets such as France and Italy have been in structural decline for decades, while the US, the world’s most valuable market for wine, appears to be in an extended downcycle.
“Among emerging wine markets, consumption in Brazil surged during Covid but has since fallen away as consumers switch wine for beer in the on-premise, in line with pre-pandemic behaviours.”
