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Australia's overproduction of grapes has led to the country's viticulturists and winemakers having to destroy large quantities of grapes to protect their livelihoods.
According to news agency Reuters, Australia has been particularly affected due to declining demand for wine in the global market. Australia's growers and winemakers are at risk, especially as demand for cheap red wine drops. Because this red wine is mostly made in that country. The country is in trouble due to China's economic crisis. In recent years, Australian wine has been dependent on the Chinese market.
Australia is the world's fifth-largest wine exporter. By mid-2023, the country had about 2 billion liters of wine on hand. This is about two years of production. In this situation, many producers are naturally in favor of leaving the wine on the market at any price.
James Cremasso, a fourth-generation grape grower in Australia, said, "How much longer can you make losses by producing more like this?" It cannot continue. He told Reuters these words while destroying the grapes on his farm.
Two-thirds of Australia's grapes are grown in and around the southeastern city of Griffith. Grapes are mainly cultivated in the irrigated lands of the plains. Italian immigrants brought this viticulture technique with them in the 1950s.
As winemakers such as Treasury Wines and the Carlyle Group now focus on producing expensive wines, these growers, who supply cheap red wine grapes, are in trouble. The amount of dried grapes on the tree is increasing day by day.
With falling prices, it is now a challenge to remove dried grapes from Australia's vast fields. There are about 1.1 million such vines in the Griffith region that need to be cleared. These statistics show how serious the situation is.
This situation has arisen especially as the price of red wine has gone down. The price of red wine per tonne in 2020 was 659 Australian dollars; In 2021 it came down to $304. In this situation, Australian grape growers are faced with financial challenges, to which they are now destroying the grapes from the fields. They hope that the price can be increased a little through this.
Many growers say removing half of Australia's grapes will not solve the crisis. This problem has been created with about 30,000 acres of grapes in the Griffith region.
The Australian Government recognized the seriousness of the situation; However, farmers feel that the government has a lot more to do in this regard. Meanwhile, not only Australia, but countries like Chile, France, and the United States are also suffering from overproduction of grapes.
According to Reuters news, this situation has also arisen due to the change in people's habits. People have cut back on alcohol for health reasons or are still drinking expensive wine. As a result, Australia's cheap red wine market has collapsed.
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