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AUSTRALIAN WINE MARKET PREPARES
FOR NEW BRANDING REGIME IN EUROPE

The Australian Government is to provide $500,000 to winemakers of Rutherglen Victoria, to assist Australia’s fortified wine industry re-brand its products and increase access to the vast European market.

Australia’s Minister for Agriculture, Mr Peter McGauran, said the Australian industry would have to use alternatives to names such as “sherry” and “tokay” in order to comply with the proposed Australia – European Community Agreement on Trade in Wine.

Mr McGauran said that industry representatives played a valuable role in negotiations with the European Community to secure greater access for our wine industry to the lucrative European market.

“The Government recognises this contribution and will assist the Australian wine industry grow its share of the fortified wine market while meeting Australia’s international obligations under the agreement.

“The Government funding, under the Australian Government’s Advancing Agricultural Industries Programme would allow specialists in consumer awareness and product naming to carry out the necessary research to come up with suitable new names for Australia’s favourite fortified wines, Mr McGauran said.

To define how the Australian industry will meet its obligations under the Australia EC agreement, the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia had developed a code of practice for the Australian Fortified Wine Industry.

Mr McGauran said that the industry was leading the charge on these changes and the Australian Government was keen to continue providing support to ensure Australia’s fortified winemakers did not suffer commercially as they honoured Australia’s international obligations.

He said that while this project would guide existing wine consumers through the transition to a new set of labels and names, the move also presented an opportunity to attract a new generation of consumers to these premium wine products.

Canberra
16 August 2007

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