A national vineyard register will be established with a goal of making Australia’s wine industry more sustainable
Wine Australia says a new national vineyard register will provide meaningful insights at a “critical time” for the sector.
The register, which has been funded by the federal government, is designed to strengthen long-term planning and decision making across the wine and grape industry.
Planned as a nationwide resource, it will provide a map-based interface for winegrape growers to securely input planting information and for data-driven insights and trends to become available at regional, state and national levels.
This information will help growers and winemakers to better understand what vines are in the ground and where, supporting more informed decision making and helping to better balance supply and demand across the sector.
“The national vineyard register is an important platform that will provide meaningful insights for growers and the sector at a really critical time,” Wine Australia CEO Martin Cole says.
“The need for better data on which varieties are grown by region was identified as a key priority under the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan to help inform better decision making by wine businesses in the context of a persistent oversupply.”
Map of Ag Australia has been selected to develop the register after many “extremely strong applications” were received.
Cole saying the company’s previous experience, which spans multiple agricultural sectors and having “successfully delivered large-scale, geospatially enabled platforms and bespoke software solutions for several organisations” made them an ideal choice.
The register is expected to be operational by the end of this year, with plans to make it flexible to allow data to be entered in different ways.
A discovery and design phase is beginning in March to fine-tune the platform’s functionality, before a core group of volunteer growers assisting with input to the design.
Federal agriculture minister Julie Collins says the register is an investment to help the sector’s long-term future.
“Australia has the best wine grapes, grape growers and wine makers in the world,” she says.
“We know recent years have been challenging, that’s why our government is investing in practical, long-term solutions to support the sector’s future.
“The national vineyard register will deliver data-driven insights to give industry the tools and information to support a resilient and sustainable grape and wine sector.”
