Workshops for wine industry

CENTRAL OTAGO

THE wellbeing of vintners and the wider winemaking sector will be examined in workshops to be held in Central Otago next month.

Supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) the nationwide series of wellbeing workshops comes after a challenging 12 months for the industry, through weather events, labour supply issues, and market uncertainty caused by Covid19.

MPI director of rural communities and farming support Nick Story said the severity of these impacts had varied across regions.

MPI had allocated $40,000 to New Zealand Winegrowers to deliver 12 wellbeing workshops in winemaking regions.

The workshops are available to everyone working across the industry and will take place on March 1 and 2, before the harvest begins.

New Zealand Winegrowers’ leadership and communities manager Nicky Grandorge said the workshops were designed to help ‘‘boost morale and reignite enthusiasm’’.

Funding for the initiative was provided in Budget 2020, when MPI was allocated $1.1 million over three years to deliver extra wellbeing and support services to complement those provided by Rural Support Trusts.

Wine is New Zealand’s sixthlargest export industry, with exports hitting $2 billion in 2020.

For ‘‘Go You!’’ workshop details and registration visit: https://www.nzwine.com/en/ initiatives/goyouworkshops/

The Cromwell workshop will be held on March 1, at Domaine Thomson, 46 Clark Rd, Mount Pisa, at 3.30pm.

In Alexandra it will be at Alexandra Community House, Centennial Ave, from 4pm on March 2.