Australian 2008s aplenty

publication date: Jun 13, 2008

Now that the grapes are in and weighed, the total size of the Australian 2008 grape harvest is much bigger than was originally feared - at 1.83 million tonnes almost double some early predictions. As the table below shows, this brings the grape harvest almost back up to the record levels of 2004-2006. As shown below, the really serious shortage has been of 2007 red wines; supplies of white wine grapes were hardly affected by the drought that plagued last year's grape harvest.     

           Red        White              Total
            (tonnes)              (m tonnes)
2001   802 909     621 040       1.42
2002   909 584     696 262       1.60
2003   825 000    573 528        1.40
2004 1,140 727    776 511       1.92
2005 1, 076 474   849 016       1.93
2006 1, 055 646   845 914       1.90
2007     679 838   717 512        1.40
2008     985 765   846 664        1.83
(2008 totals provisional)

“The figure of 1.83 million tonnes represents a resounding success in a challenging year, and is testament to the resilience and adaptive nature of our regional growers and wineries,” commented Stephen Strachan, chief executive of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, adding robustly, “a harvest such as this should dispel any fears that we are unable to supply our domestic and international markets with the volume of quality Australian wine required.

“However, with increasing pressure around water shortages, a strong Australian dollar, and a tough international market, we can no longer compete on price alone. And a high figure such as this raises some concerns regarding the future sustainability of the lower-priced sector of our industry.