A HIGH Australian wine crush will see the sector's surplus continue, according to Winemakers Federation of Australia chief executive Stephen Strachan.
Australia's wine crush grew by nearly a third in 2008 to 1,830,673 tonnes, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The figure was an increase of 433,323 tonnes on the 2006/2007 crush.
But Mr Strachan said the industry needed to downsize.
"We have been in surplus all this year, though not as extreme as up until 2006,’’ Mr Strachan said.
"We need adjustment in the industry…it’s starting to happen."
Mr Strachan said if there were good water allocations next year the industry could potentially see itself with another large surplus on its hands.
However as large companies had already indicated they would be reducing their intake next year, any surplus was likely to exist in vineyards rather than in wine production, he said.
While the low Australian dollar provided export opportunities for wineries, Mr Strachan said building a business around exporting at the dollar’s current level was a high risk strategy.
"Long term business should be built around the dollar being higher than it is now,’’ Mr Strachan said.
South Australia grew 45.3 per cent of the national harvest this year while Victoria supplied 16.3 per cent of Australia’s winegrapes, crushing 299,000 tonnes.
In all 261.6 million litres of beverage wine was produced, up 26.7 per cent on 2006/2007.
Some 54.5 per cent of wine produced was red and rose table wine, an increase of 42 per cent.
White table wine production was up 16.4 per cent.
