{"id":505065,"date":"2026-02-26T09:56:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505065\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:56:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T09:56:17","slug":"winegrape-growers-welcome-the-establishment-of-national-vineyard-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/505065\/","title":{"rendered":"Winegrape growers welcome the establishment of national vineyard register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The federal government will establish a national vineyard register to track vineyard sizes and varieties.<\/p>\n

It follows almost two years of work by peak body Wine Australia, during which time many growers and wine businesses weighed difficult decisions about the future of their vineyards.<\/p>\n

The register, which will be hosted on a digital platform, will show vineyard ages, sizes and grape varieties.<\/p>\n

It is expected to be operational by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Wine Australia will take the lead on the project, while farming data company Map of Ag will design and build the platform in consultation with the industry.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wine grape growers say a national register should have been established years ago. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)<\/p>\n

It will be funded through the federal government’s more than $4-million Grape and Wine Sector Long-term Viability Support Package.<\/p>\n

Better late than never<\/p>\n

The announcement is welcome news for growers that have been in crisis due to worsening drought conditions, skyrocketing water prices and changing consumer habits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Brett Rosenzweig says the register will help growers make more informed business decisions. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)<\/p>\n

Riverland grower Brett Rosenzweig said a national overview of vineyards was “probably well overdue”.<\/p>\n

“The information could have been relevant probably four years ago when we had the China tariffs in play and the price of red grapes started to decline, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

“I know other industries have mapped and have a register of their hectares across Australia, so the fact that we’re going to do it nationally, not just South Australia, [is] excellent.”<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

Australian Grape and Wine says there is a lack of data to show what is going on in the industry. (ABC Riverland: Shannon Pearce)<\/p>\n

Most recently, growers have been battling a global oversupply of red wine grapes<\/a> and watched some white varieties recently tip into oversupply<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The industry has seen many different varieties move in and out of oversupply over time as drinking trends have fluctuated.<\/p>\n

Australian Grape and Wine said it had been difficult to manage those pressures without national supply data.<\/p>\n

“Our data, in terms of plantings, is not strong,” chief executive Lee McLean said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t have a good grasp nationally of what is in the ground, what’s been planted, what might be pulled out.”<\/p>\n

South Australia is the only state with a vineyard register, which is run through Vinehealth Australia.<\/p>\n

Any person or organisation who owns land with 0.5 hectares or more of planted vines in the state is required to register their property with Vinehealth Australia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It is not clear whether it will be mandatory to sign up to the register. (ABC News: Nathan Morris)<\/p>\n

Is it mandatory?<\/p>\n

Mr Rosenzweig said it was important that participation in the register be compulsory for it to be effective.<\/p>\n

“I can’t imagine why anyone would decide that they don’t want the size of their vineyard known or their varieties that they grow known,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is probably a very good example of where the industry can actually, for once, work cohesively to deliver a positive outcome.”\"A<\/p>\n

Julie Collins says the project is moving quickly to meet the target of operation beginning by the end of this year. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)<\/p>\n

Federal Agriculture Minister Julie Collins did not say whether there would be mandatory requirements for growers to register, but expected growers would want to take part.<\/p>\n

“We expect, given that industry have called for it, that industry will want to put the data into the register \u2026 to make sure that this register is actually valuable to them,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The federal government will establish a national vineyard register to track vineyard sizes and varieties. It follows almost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,253715,99,80518,253711,253712,6077,253714,253713],"class_list":{"0":"post-505065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brett-rosenzweig","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-julie-collins","13":"tag-national-vineyard-register","14":"tag-vinehealth","15":"tag-wine-australia","16":"tag-wine-grape","17":"tag-winegrape"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}