Wine industry under ACCC microscope

THE competition watchdog has sharpened its focus on the bulk wine grape industry following widespread concerns about competition and fair trading issues. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is calling on wine grape growers to complete an anonymous survey that allows them to detail any unfair dealings they may have had with wineries. The survey comes two months after ACCC Commissioner Mick Keogh first flagged the watchdog’s investigation into the wine grape industry’s contracts with growers. He said concerns first emerged during a review of the Horticulture Code of Conduct, which does not cover the wine industry. “When we were reviewing the horticulture sector as part of the code review, we heard a lot of discussion from wine grape growers about issues they had in relation to marketing arrangements in the sector,” Mr Keogh said. They included a lack of pricing information being available to growers when their grapes were delivered, concerns about the impartiality of grape quality assessment and extended and delayed payments. Mr Keogh said some multinational wine companies do not pay for grapes until 12 months after receiving them. A more recent issue is the delayed harvesting of grapes at the request of the wineries buying them. The trend appeared for the first time this year following a change to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Code that ruled that wineries could add water to high-sugar content grape juice to assist fermentation. Delays to harvesting, particularly in parts of South Australia, meant losses of up to 30 per cent in growers’ tonnages. There has been widespread industry concern that wine companies are using the rule change to delay harvest so grapes lose moisture, concentrating sugar levels and reducing tonnages and by extension, payments to growers. The ACCC investigation into growers’ contractual terms with wineries follows similar examinations of the Australian dairy and beef industries, sectors with “systematic concerns”, Mr Keogh said. Australian Vignerons chief executive Anna Hooper welcomed the survey. She said the results would help the ACCC hone in on business practices that could be putting growers at a disadvantage.