Wine industry analyst Paul Clancy speaks out about the lack of action taken by the Australian wine industry to combat the oversupply – and the inherent reluctance to even recognise the commercial sector as relevant.
I have just read a media release from the Murray Valley Winegrowers stating the bleeding obvious that a recent Wine Australia report about wine stocks and the oversupply of grapes and wine, “removes any doubt about the seriousness of industry oversupply”.
Really? What doubt about the seriousness was there prior to the Wine Australia report?
What on earth is wrong with the Australian wine industry that has caused this 20-year-long paralysis to take action on an oversupply?
At the risk of boring the pants off an industry unwilling and/or incapable of facing the reality of what is happening to it, I have to say that everything which is playing out now was laid bare in the Chifley Report (Australian Wine Industry Structural Adjustment – Wine and Grape Sector Collaborative Response) – a paper Chris Byrne and I wrote seventeen years ago in February 2009.
Some claim that the paper was not shelved and that it precipitated some action – a feeble interpretation.
The paper flagged a looming crisis which left unaddressed, became a catastrophe and is now a cataclysmic wrecking ball.
Millions of dollars of winery assets, vineyards and wineries from SMEs to small family enterprises have been lost.
The human cost and social impact on communities and individuals is significant and increasing as each month passes.
Meanwhile the Wine Australia report noted that wine production exceeded sales in 2024-25 and wine stocks increased by five percent (the equivalent of about 375,000 tonnes of grapes).
And the 2026 vintage is upon us.
Again, at the risk of being dismissed as a doomsayer and an acolyte of the big commercial wine producers which make wine mostly from grapes from the three irrigated inland regions and which account for about 80 percent of our exports and which have, albeit narrow, low margin markets, I suggest the industry needs to nurture the tiny green shoots that sector represents.
The world drinks commodity wine and is the dominant market sector by a country mile.
The commercial wine producers need recognition and help because their sustainability is critical for the Australian wine industry to lower its wine stocks and save enough of its furniture to give hope for a return to a supply and demand balance some time in the future.
There is little hope of that of course.
The inherent reluctance to even recognise the commercial sector as relevant – let alone acknowledge that it represents 60 percent of the industry – means that tinkering and tattling will be the order while the industry continues to wither.
I write only out of frustration as a helpless spectator.
Apologies for the rage, cynicism and the repetition.