Australian farmers uproot vines as global wine glut persists

Demand falling faster than production amid rising costs, change in drinking habits

Australian grapegrower Tony Townsend destroyed half his 14ha vineyard in 2023.

The fields were healthy and vibrant, but he estimates he would have lost about A$35,000 (S$31,000) to harvest them. While a heatwave is holding him back from ripping out the rest, he plans to finish the job once the weather cools losing all the vines he has tended for the past decade.

"I enjoyed being in the wine industry, but it was just economically unviable to continue this way," said Mr Townsend from his farm, where a pile of discarded plants is waiting to be burned.

He lives in Riverland, a region in South Australia that produces about a third of the nation's harvest.

Since 2020, a convergence of Covid-19-fuelled cost increases and Chinese tariffs has pushed up supply and depressed prices in the country. While Mr Townsend was never fully reliant on grape growing for his income and works part-time in wine and food tourism, not every farmer has been so lucky.

"There are a lot of people who don't see a future in the wine industry," said Ms Lyndall Rowe, chief executive of Riverland Wine, an industry group representing growers and winemakers.

It is a problem that is playing out all around the world. Although global production hit a 60-year low in 2023, a wine glut is persisting, signifying that demand is falling even faster.

While data from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine shows that global consumption has lagged behind production of wine since at least 1995, the industry has hit an inflection point as changing drinking patterns and lackluster economic conditions look like they are here to stay.