THE South West will receive a boost thanks to an industry plan to grow the State’s highly prized wine sector.
The new WA Wine Industry Strategic Plan will guide growth over the next decade with the aim of increasing the sector’s value to $1billion by 2020.
The state’s wine industry already contributes nearly $700 million a year from the vine to glass providing significant benefits to regional economies and employment in the South West.
“This year marks 180 years of continuous winemaking in Western Australia,” food and agriculture minister Ken Baston said.
“The industry began in 1834 in the Swan Valley and so it’s fitting that a new strategic plan be put in place this year.”
The Minister said the wine industry had shown leadership in developing a plan to address recent challenges choosing a path to grow value, profitability and investment in regional fine wine businesses and supply chains.
“The industry provides significant economic and employment benefits to regional WA,” he said.
“It adds value to the farm gate price by a factor of 10 and much of this remains in the region of production. Towns based in wine regions will continue to attract talented young people who understand the potential of making fine wine in WA.
“The plan builds on the industry’s strengths producing world-class regional fine wine as well as the competitive advantages presented by our State’s biosecurity status and natural resources.”
Mr Baston said the plan noted the need for a unified representational structure and a collaborative approach to market development.
“The industry seeks to secure self-funding certainty and with this, the ability to partner with government agencies and other agricultural sectors to bring a strong message to developing export markets,” he said.
Increasing exports is a major focus of the plan, with industry setting an ambitious target of doubling the value of wine exports to $100million by 2017. The industry intends to build strong partnerships and establish new routes into developing and established markets in Asia.
Domestically, wine tourism and direct sales channels will provide WA wine businesses with a more profitable route to market.
The industry is working with Tourism WA in developing a program that aligns with ‘Restaurant Australia’, the national wine and food strategy targeting the high value international ‘gastro-tourism’ market.
“The Department of Agriculture and Food and the WA wine industry have partnered in a successful international marketing program which contributed to wine export value growing from $33million to $45.3million in the two years to 2013,” the Minister said.
“The WA Government will continue to work with the wine industry to grow the markets, productivity, profitability and people that underpin successful fine wine businesses.”
