Wine Industry

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:51): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister please update the house about how the Marshall Liberal government is partnering with industry to support South Australian wine producers? With your leave, sir, and that of the house I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: In 2020, it has been a tumultuous year for the South Australian wine industry, with drought and bushfires, so the Marshall Liberal government is committed to backing these businesses to continue exporting into existing and new markets.

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Member of the Executive Council, Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:52): I thank the member for the question and note that his electorate of Chaffey, based in the Riverland, is a key electorate, and food and wine are very important to your constituents there, member for Chaffey. Of course, it's just one of the world-renowned wine regions we have in South Australia. In fact, we've got 18 various wine regions throughout South Australia: the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills, just to name a few.

The Hon. D.C. van Holst Pellekaan: The southern Flinders.

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON: The southern Flinders. Many of those are just within an hour's drive of Adelaide. These regions produce premium quality wine that's sold to all corners of the world and enjoyed by millions. Of course, it is also enjoyed by many South Australians. We recognise and are very proud of the wine regions that we have in South Australia and the quality of wine that is introduced.

As the member for Chaffey said, 2020 has really been a very challenging year for our wine producers. They have faced many challenges, each of them large in themselves let alone when they are combined together. As a result, and even since coming to government, the Marshall government has really focused on how we can help our exporters as a whole, how they can grow their business, and specifically also our key wine exporters that are a prime sector in our economy, wanting them to grow.

One of the programs that we have introduced as a government is the wine industry exports recovery program, introduced this year. It is a program that was developed in close consultation with industry, making sure we can support our premium wine producers. It consists of 10 unique projects. All of them have some shared goals. One of them is to help grow wine consumption in our markets and, of course, also to emphasise and really boost the reputation of our South Australian wine in those regions. With that comes growing consumer demand and also increased pricepoints.

As I said, these programs have been delivered as industry partnerships with some of our key industry bodies in South Australia. One of those ten projects is the Emerging Markets Program, which is a partnership with the South Australian Wine Industry Association. It has been developed to help some of our wineries diversify into new markets or grow into existing markets in the Asia region, which includes Malaysia, India, Japan and South Korea. If I could just note that South Korea has in recent years been experiencing year-on-year growth of 18 per cent. So there is an opportunity for our wineries there.

The program aims to do this by creating educational resources for participating wineries, giving them market insights into how to do business in each of those specific countries, as well as providing market intelligence based out of our terrific trade office network. Many of those trade offices are in those keys regions as well.

Another example of the projects undertaken was into the United States market. This is quite a sophisticated market, well established in Australia and South Australia for our exports and trying to grow into that as well. In October and November, in partnership with Wine Australia and also wine.com, a promotional campaign online was undertaken to drive sales and consumption of South Australian wine into the US.

These are some examples. Others involved working with the Barossa Grape and Wine Association, the Adelaide Hills wine region and the Clare Valley Wine and Grape Association, with them trying to look to grow into the UK. These are some examples of how the government is helping to back business to help them grow exports and support our economy.

There is no doubt that this year has brought about significant challenges and we certainly don't underestimate them as a government, but we are confident in the quality of South Australian wine and also the integrity of the South Australian wine industry.