Wine Australia today released its new five-year Strategic Plan 2020–25 and its Annual Operational Plan 2020–21.
'Our plans detail where we will invest for the sector's success, for each of the country's 65 wine regions and for all grape and wine business, whatever their size. They have been developed to address the current dynamic environment with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as new and emerging challenges', said Cath Oates, Acting Chair of Wine Australia.
Strategic Plan
'We asked our stakeholders – grapegrowers, wine producers, exporters, state and regional associations, researchers and wine sector suppliers – what we should focus on and their priorities are reflected in our five strategies:
- Strategy 1: Market Australian wine
- Strategy 2: Protect the reputation of Australian wine
- Strategy 3: Enhance grape and wine excellence
- Strategy 4: Grow sustainable environments
- Strategy 5: Build business sustainability, excellence and leadership.
'We worked closely with Australian Grape & Wine as it developed its new, 30-year Vision 2050, which was launched last week.
'Our plan sets out what Wine Australia will deliver to contribute to Vision 2050 and its goal of profitable, resilient and sustainable winegrape and wine businesses.
'The plan is designed to help respond to challenges and opportunities identified in Vision 2050, so we have a strong emphasis on growing markets, grape and wine excellence, sustainability, biosecurity and mitigating the effects of climate change.
'We have a heightened focus on the adoption of research outcomes. We need more growers and producers to take up research and development findings, and we need to increase the speed of uptake. Following an in-depth review of extension and adoption, we have established adoption as our fifth strategy.
'This means that we will be investing proportionally less in R&D projects. There are also changes in marketing, where we will increase our social media and digital engagement and deliver more retailer and distributor promotions', she said.
Over the next five years, Wine Australia will invest more than $200 million in R&D, marketing, regulation and adoption. This money comes from the sector levies – growers pay the grape research levy, wine producers pay the wine grape levy and exporters pay the wine export charge – and matching R&D funding from the Australian Government.
Annual Operational Plan
'Our Annual Operational Plan 2020–21 details where we will invest $65.3 million in the first year of our new Strategic Plan and the final year of in-market activities funded by the Australian Government's $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support Package', she said.
'Over the next 12 months, we understand that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to create challenges for the grape and wine sector.
'So that we can continue to provide our key services to the sector, we have adapted and changed how we promote and market wine, how we protect the reputation of Australian wine, how our researchers conduct their projects and how we help the sector adopt research outcomes.
