Displaying items by tag: Philip Gregan

OPINION: The New Year is well underway, and in January the first grapes of the new vintage were harvested in Northland. So, another year begins.

OPINION: A common refrain last year was 'survive 'til 25', including from those in New Zealand's wine industry facing rising costs, surplus wine and sluggish export sales.

Did you know that nearly 90% of total New Zealand wine sales occur offshore? That simple number means our wine businesses are the most export oriented of all the global wine industries. It also makes our sector especially sensitive to any changes in the trade rules that govern the access of our wines into international markets.

In late 2022 the New Zealand Winegrowers Board appointed a Governance Review Working Group to conduct a review of NZW governance, representation, and the design of the commodity levies that fund NZW.

New Zealand's wine regions harvested 395,000 tonnes of grapes in the 2024 vintage, which is 21% lower than 2023, nearly 30% down on the bumper 2022 crop, and slightly above the modest 2021 yield.

OPINION: Before Covid-19, the rise and rise of wine tourism was a much talked about feature of the wine sales landscape.

Altogether Unique 2024 is a chance to connect with colleagues, celebrate fresh successes, showcase industry stalwarts, and dig into the business, research and innovation of New Zealand’s wine industry.

OPINION: The news could not have been more concerning – an industry member deliberately and illegally imported grapevines into New Zealand, and then grew those vines in one of our major winegrowing regions, thereby threatening the livelihoods of friends, neighbours, and colleagues in the industry, and potentially the wider primary sector.

OPINION: The New Year is now well underway and appears to have started promisingly on the weather front, with lots of warm, dry days.

Several factors are playing into a slowdown in New Zealand wine exports, including bumper sales in 2020, a light vintage in 2021, and pipeline refilling in 2022.