2019 Murray Valley winegrape crush report

Murray Valley Winegrowers (MVW) has released its annual winegrape crush survey report for the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill wine regions. The report is produced by Wine Australia based on data gathered in a national survey of wineries.

The report indicates that 2019 production from both grower and winery-owned vineyards in the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill regions was 345,854 tonnes, almost identical to the volume produced in 2018. This year growers were paid $115 million for their 244,000 tonnes, with income up 17 per cent on 2018, whilst winery-owned vineyards produced 102,000 tonnes.
The National crush report for 2019 estimated production at 1.73 million tonnes, down by 3% on 2018 and similar to the long term average of 1.75 million tonnes.

Key red varieties continued to show marked improvement with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot all recording price increases of close to 25 per cent on that achieved in 2018.

In comparison to 2018, the average price of Cabernet Sauvignon improved by 26 per cent to $607/tonne; Shiraz averaged $601/t, up by 24 per cent and Merlot was $553/t, an increase of 22 per cent.

Prices for the main white varieties recorded modest increases as well.

Despite a solid demand for white varieties, prices have generally been restrained. Chardonnay averaged $365/t, an improvement of 10%; Gordo was up by 17%, coming in at $281/t; Prosecco had the biggest increase of the white varieties achieving $545/t, an increase of 13%; Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon had modest increases to realize $434/t and $292/t respectively. Pinot Gris dropped back slightly to $496/t, a reduction of 2%.

Across all varieties, the average price was up 17 per cent to $470/tonne, from $402/t in 2018.

By variety, Chardonnay remains on top of the Murray Darling and Swan Hill production list at 83,304 tonnes, followed by Shiraz 63,788t, Cabernet Sauvignon 46,410t, Merlot 29,529t, Pinot Gris 24,923t, Sauvignon Blanc 23,246t and Gordo 19,922t.
Despite some continued recovery of prices in recent years, MVW executive officer Paul Derrico says there is still a reasonable way to go.

“The 2019 crush of 346,000t was a little surprising as most thoughts were it would be down a little on 2018 given the extreme heat, dry conditions and seasonal influences.

Whilst the key red varieties have shown significant improvement in recent years to now achieve around the $600 per tonne mark, the whites are lagging behind at an average of $370 per tonne and barely covering the cost of production with the high price of water, electricity and other on farm inputs. We must remember that whites still account for 54% of the volume of winegrapes produced in the Murray Darling and Swan Hill regions and therefore growers’ incomes are still well short of where we would like them to be.

Whilst the outlook is generally optimistic, growers are encouraged to explore all avenues to sell their fruit with a number of reports suggesting that prices in the range of $650 to $700 per tonne were achieved for mainstream reds in 2019, notwithstanding the crush report average of around $600 per tonne”

Summary 2019 Murray Valley (Murray-Darling/Swan Hill wine regions)

Winegrape Crush Survey report, significant varieties

	2018 APP $/tonne	*2019* *APP* *$/tonne*	% Change	2018 Production (tonnes)	*2019* *Production* *(tonnes)*
Cabernet Sauvignon	483	*607*	+26	41,001	*46,410*
Chardonnay	333	*365*	+10	96,511	*83,304*
Colombard	257	*275*	+7	12,638	*10,694*
Gordo	240	*281*	+17	15,253	*19,922*
Merlot	452	*553*	+22	24,593	*29,529*
Pinot Gris/Grigio	507	*496*	(2)	27,551	*24,923*
Prosecco	482	*545*	+13	2,763	*3,297*
Pinot Noir	401	*451*	+12	5,820	*5,343*
Sauvignon Blanc	406	*434*	+7	23,883	*23,246*
Semillon	267	*292*	+9	10,027	*9,057*
Shiraz	483	*601*	+24	63,899	*63,788*
All varieties	402	*470*	+17	345,458	*345,854*
Grower tonnes Winery tonnes Total tonnes				242,275 103,183 345,458	*243,430* *102,424* *345,854*
Total value grower tonnes Total value inc. winery fruit	$97m $139m	*$115m* *$163m*	+19 +17