The Albanese Government has decided to continue the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grants program.
“This is a relief to winemakers and their teams right across Australia’s sixty-five wine regions,” says Tony Battaglene, chief executive of Australian Grape & Wine.
“We are delighted that the Government has shown its commitment to Australian grape and wine businesses during a very challenging period for the sector.
“This grant helps Australia’s grape and wine businesses to invest in their cellar door offerings and employ local people.
“We know great cellar doors attract tourists to regional Australia and we also know these tourists tend to spend more money in regional communities when they visit, with benefits flowing from the vineyard through to the local pub and bakery.”
Under the program, producers who meet the eligibility criteria in the preceding financial year can apply for a grant payment of 29 percent of the notional wholesale selling price of their eligible domestic cellar door sales (up to $100,000 GST exclusive).
Total funding under the grant program is capped at $10 million each financial year.
“We applaud the Government for listening to Australian winemakers and making the right call for regional communities in this budget,” Mr Battaglene says.
There are more than 2,000 wineries and 6,000 winegrape growing businesses across the country.
Grapegrowing, winemaking and wine-related tourism contributed an estimated $45.5 billion to the Australian economy in 2019.
The sector supports the employment of more than 160,000 people across Australia (full and part time), the majority of which are located in rural and regional Australia.
There were approximately 8.3 million visits to wineries in the year to March 2019 (although this fell to 5.5 million visits to wineries in the year to September 2020 as a result of the pandemic).
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