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Drought and flooding pains: Riverland vineyards call for help

River Murray water flooding into Renmark vineyards after a levee breach is adding yet another blow to a Riverland industry already reeling from a wine glut and devastated export markets.

Dec 16, 2022, updated Dec 16, 2022
Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone surveys a submerged vineyard flooded after a levee breach at Renmark. Photo: Belinda Willis/InDaily

Chaffey MP Tim Whetstone surveys a submerged vineyard flooded after a levee breach at Renmark. Photo: Belinda Willis/InDaily

Destructive floodwaters and tough red wine markets are seeing Riverland Wine call for a $5 million rescue package for the largest wine grape growing region in the country.

Key industry leaders and Chaffey state government MP Tim Whetstone met with Federal Agriculture and Emergency Management Minister Murray Watts in the Riverland this week to outline urgent needs for growers to weather the industry storm.

Whetstone visited the 200ha vineyard flooded near the Plush’s Bend levee in Renmark earlier this week, noting that the damage is the tip of devastating challenges growers are facing.

The industry is grappling with flood waters that are threatening to shut down pumps and robbing crops of irrigation, a decimated Chinese export market and wineries rejecting this year’s harvest.

“This is what more of Renmark could look like if the levee breaches, I don’t want to espouse doom and gloom but this is what we face,” Whetstone said.

“It’s almost like it’s coming at you in slow motion. This grape grower (near the Renmark levee) has a massive issue, we don’t know when the water will recede, we don’t know how it will affect the vines long term, it is likely to cause significant disease.”

But he said grape growers and other Riverland farmers of almonds, stone fruit and citrus also face the threat of SA Power Networks disconnecting pumps along the River Murray that provide vital water to their multi-million-dollar crops.

This would lead to growers experiencing flooding at the riverside and drought-like water shortage conditions on properties further back.

“I spoke with a vineyard in Paringa that had its power disconnected to a 300ha vineyard with no notice,” Whetstone said, adding that he addressed an emergency government cabinet meeting about the issue this week.

He called for better planning for the region stretching 330km along the River Murray, saying: “If they are going to disconnect power to a pump that may threaten many, many tens of millions of dollars worth of assets”.

Paisley vineyard owner David Zadow was told to move a water pump fast or his entire grid including five other pumps along with others belonging to neighbours, would all be disconnected, leading to crops dying without water.

David Zadow managed to move his vineyard water pump days before flooding spilled into its shed. Photo: Belinda Willis/InDaily

He managed to shift the pump days before water spilled over a bank at Blanchetown and flooded its shed.

“Our biggest problem and threat is not knowing if SA Power will suddenly cut out power off, we’ve had sleepless nights,” Zadow said.

Riverland Wine chief executive officer Lyndall Rowe said the region’s 936 growers desperately needed more support as they also dealt with a national glut of red wine sitting in tanks around the country.

Riverland growers are some of the largest producers of shiraz and cabernet red wine grapes and many are being told by wineries that they will not buy their crops this harvest.

Rowe said export markets to China had been shut down affecting demand for red wine and “no shiraz and cabernet grower is unaffected”.

“An estimated 40 per cent of shiraz and cabernet wine grapes produced in this region has no domestic or export market contracts,” with predictions the region would be affected for two to four years.

Many growers are pulling out vines to plant new varieties or mothballing vines with no income, with Rowe saying a high shipping cost hangover was also having a serious impact.

Riverland grape growers are calling for a $5 million support package. Riverland Wine chief executive officer Lyndall Rowe and winemaker Jim Markeas. Photo: Belinda Willis

Riverland Wine wants co-investment to tailor and support wine export programs, manage the existing grape inventory and to help transition through the next two years trading.

Additional funding for marketing and financial support for struggling growers to “respond to challenging conditions”.

Mallee Estate winery and vineyards owner Jim Markeas, who is a Riverland Wine board member, said growers needed incentives to adapt.

“The industry is going through a tough patch, there will be a certain amount of growers that can’t hang in there,” he said.

Minister Watts said losing the China market was a “very big blow” to the Riverland, and now the region also faced supply issues and floods.

There were currently some grants available for growers, and that he would consider the pitch for $5 million from Riverland Wine.

“I would obviously have to go through the budget process” next year, he said, but would look at other ways to support the industry “through these tough times”.

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