In an attempt to boost sales as well as tourism, the Federal Government has allocated funds of $50 million for the Australian wine industry. This joyous news was announced on 28th August 2017 by Mr. Barnaby Joyce (Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources), at Adelaide’s iconic Penfolds Magill Estate.
The Export and Regional Wine Support initiative focus on escalating wine exports to a record value of $3.5 billion over the next three years. In the same time span, they also wish to increase investment in marketing wines to the US as well as China. This step is part of a scheme to improve the Wine Equalisation Tax rebate program.
According to Mr. Joyce, when the Coalition formed the government, the wine industry was having a rough time. But the government worked for hand in hand with the industry to establish new free trade agreements, which are paying off now with hefty increases in countries like China, Japan, Korea, USA, the UK and the Middle East. The China Australia Free Trade Agreement was quite a success, with exports going up from $364 million in the year 2015, to $516 million the following year. He estimates that the export markets would see a hike of over 8% by the year 2022.
Andreas Clark (CEO, Wine Australia) was delighted with this news, saying that the wine, as well as tourism industry, can make use of these funds to solidify its position in the global wine sector. They plan on growing exports to China by 17%, and to the US by 6%.
The Export and Regional Wine Support project also aims to offer state based funding, to enhance wine tourism experiences and attract the attention of international tourists. The goal is to cater to 40,000 foreign tourists to the lush and beautiful Aussie wine regions every year, which would give a boost of close to $170 million to the Australian economy.
