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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-04 Daily Xml
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Wine Industry

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (15:40): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is working with the South Australian wine industry to create jobs here in South Australia?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:41): I thank the member for Chaffey. Of course, his electorate takes in the Riverland, which is a very important wine region in South Australia. It helps contribute over $1.9 billion to our economy, so his region is very important. That wine industry has been impacted of late, whether it's the bushfires or COVID with international travel restrictions or market access issues into some of our key markets, principally into China, where just recently tariffs of over 200 per cent were announced for a period of five years, which of course causes major concern. We as a government are taking this very seriously.

Since becoming minister, I have worked closely with the industry because we know that we have to work with the industry to solve these challenges. We have to work with the federal government to partner with them to assist them moving forward because they know the solutions better than the government does.

As I said, in recent months I have been holding industry round tables with not only regional associations but also state bodies and national bodies to understand what the response should look like and what the support requirements are that they have. I would like to thank them for their input. There was a lot of time spent there and they gave some great insights. One of their key messages was that what will be extremely difficult, the only real solution when there are market access issues and challenges, is to expand into other markets. It will not be easy of course, but we are ready to work hand in glove with them to help them achieve that.

Previously, I have spoken in parliament about how we can assist with local domestic sales. We have run the I Choose SA wine campaign, which was very successful, and also our trade offices in our key markets are doing fantastic work. As I said, helping these winemakers expand into other markets and diversify is hugely important, and that is why it was fantastic when very recently at McLaren Vale, one of our key wine regions, the Premier announced the Marshall government's Wine Export Recovery and Expansion Program. That is a $5.4 million commitment from the government over the next four years to help support our South Australian wine exporters. It will help support them because we know that will grow local jobs in those areas and, more principally, South Australia.

Of course, we are going to do that by aggressively going into existing markets, principally, and the message is that there are existing markets that we need to expand into. Some of those, the US and the UK, are worth around $400 million each and there is capacity for them to absorb some volume into those markets and also Canada, which has a single desk system: the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It's key and fundamental that we work with them.

There are huge opportunities in developing markets as well, especially in the Asian middle class. They are getting an appetite for South Australian wines, whether that is Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia or even of course New Zealand, our near neighbours. There are some great opportunities there and in emerging markets, where they are just getting a taste for it, such as the United Arab Emirates, Western Europe and India.

How do we do that? We have to cater for all SA wineries, whether they are large, medium or small, going into existing platforms, whether that's in the US, wine.com, a massive e-commerce platform; Vivino, the number one wine app in the world; or whether it is in the United Kingdom through Majestic Wine e-commerce and retail there. Sales have certainly picked up into markets. The program starts on 1 July. It is a fantastic program and I recommend wineries get involved. It is just one way the Marshall government is working to support the wine industry here in SA and help support jobs.

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