News

Thai health warning labels Last month new draft requirements were released for domestic consultation by Thailand’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABCB) as a draft amendment to Section 26(1) of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. The draft announcement covers a wide range of requirements including graphic health warnings, restrictions on text that is displayed on the …

The United States (US) consultation on nutrition, allergen and ingredient labelling: As noted in last month’s update the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) notified the World Trade Organization (G/TBT/N/USA/2095) of a consultation on potential changes to “Labelling and Advertising of Wine, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages With Alcohol Content, Nutritional Information, …

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has announced Round 2 of the Energy Efficiency Grants for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises closing 8th April 2024. The grants will support businesses to upgrade or replace inefficient equipment. The grant objectives are to increase the uptake of energy efficient technologies enabling industries to …

Australian Grape & Wine has received concerns regarding gall-like symptoms being observed in a number of vineyards across Queensland, NSW, ACT and Victoria. Preliminary analysis conducted by laboratories in NSW and Victoria has suggested the presence of a causal agent that is a different variant to the previous Agrobacterium associated with crown-gall in Australian vineyards. …

On Tuesday 5 March 2024, ABAREs released its Agricultural Commodities Report showing sustained downward pressure on grape pricing in 2023−24 and a gloomy outlook, at least in the medium term. Prices in Australia’s key production regions of the Riverina, Riverland and Murray Darling-Swan Hill are expected to fall substantially due to historically high carryover stocks …

Food and Grocery Code The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has recently launched an Independent Review of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct. The Food and Grocery Code does not currently cover wine however one of the questions asked by the reviewer is whether the Code should be extended to cover other aspects …

Australian Grape & Wine would like to notify all grape and wine producers that there has been a minor amendment to the appendices of the Australian Wine Industry Code of Conduct to make the dispute resolution procedure more efficient and more accessible to growers.  The change was in response to feedback from users and was …

A significant downturn in wine exports and high inventory levels in Australian wineries have led to supressed winegrape prices in many parts of Australia. These challenging times have raised general concerns from growers about the state of the market. We have also heard several more specific concerns regarding individual dealings with buyers. Although low prices …

Following the notification of grape vine red blotch virus (GRBV) detection in Western Australia in July 2022, Autumn surveillance and testing has been conducted in several States returning encouraging results.  The very low number of positive results indicate that spread of GRBV is likely to be low. With that in mind, we remain committed to …

As the weather is starting to warm up and more wine lovers are getting out and about to cellar doors, it’s time to check and see if you need any additional DrinkWise Stay tasteful while tasting resources. The resources (including the scratchie card) are designed to increase your visitors understanding of how many pours (tastings) …