GRAPE growers have accused the wine industry's peak body of hypocrisy for claiming they were in league with retailers in rorting the wine tax rebate system.
Murray Valley Winegrowers chief executive officer Mike Stone has hit out at the Winemakers' Federation of Australia for suggesting that growers were implicated in rorting the wine equalisation tax rebate system.
Last week, the WFA accused retailers of "deplorable" behaviour for manipulating the WET rebate system to obtain below-cost wine for their house brands.
The WFA claimed retailers were striking deals with grape growers whereby the growers obtained the 29 per cent WET rebate for having fruit contract-processed into wine and sold to retailers.
It claimed the retailers were then undercutting genuine producers with their house brands because they weren't paying the growers for their fruit, only for the winemaking.
WFA chief executive Stephen Strachan sparked a furore by describing Coles, Woolworths and other retailers as "predators" whose behaviour in undercutting wine producers was "absolutely deplorable".
But Mr Stone rejected the claim that growers were working with supermarkets to rort the system.
"They are taking a supercilious and hypocritical stance by suggesting growers are in league with supermarkets rorting the WET system," he said.
"I would think the Winemakers Federation has better things to do than blame the woes of the industry on growers.
"When is the last time the Winemakers' Federation spoke out about the reprehensible actions of some of its members?"
In the Riverina, Wine Grapes Marketing Board chief executive officer Brian Simpson said growers were just as entitled to benefit from the WET rebate as anyone else.
"These people are not doing anything wrong," Mr Simpson said. "They are perfectly within their legal right to do that and it's because they have been squeezed out of the market for their grapes that they are doing it."
But Mr Strachan said the WFA was not targeting growers.
"We are simply hell-bent on protecting the rebate for its originally intended purpose," he said.
"These growers who are accessing the rebate in the context of the loopholes we believe to exist within the regulations are simply doing whatever anyone would do in those circumstances."
