The Grape Growing Cost Calculator on Wine Australia’s website

A collaboration between the NSW Wine Industry Association, Riverina Winegrape Growers and Wine Australia has developed a suite of new online tools for NSW grapegrowers to better manage their future productivity and profitability.

While stage one of the Wine Industry Productivity and Profitability (WIPP) project focussed on underlying research and industry engagement, stage two is about delivering lasting and impactful initiatives for the wine industry and this week New South Wales Wine announced the launch of Weather as a Service (WaaS) and the Grape Growing Cost Calculator in Griffith.

WaaS is a significant investment in a digital weather and disease management solution developed specifically for the wine industry. As the state’s physical weather infrastructure deteriorated, a digital solution utilising public data sources provides a more flexible and scalable solution, which adds value in three-day forecasting, and pest and disease alerts for botrytis, downy mildew and powdery mildew.

NSW Wine president Mark Bourne said the WIPP’s focus was clear: “addressing growers’ challenges with practical solutions that are easy to use”.

“We see this as the first step, and a strong platform to improve productivity and profitability long term,” said Bourne.

Also launched was the Grape Growing Cost Calculator, a simple online calculator that allows the user to estimate the costs of winegrape growing in any of the inland regions of Australia: Riverina, Riverland, and Murray Darling-Swan Hill.

Wine Australia chief operating officer Dr Liz Waters said that the calculator was intended to provide a quick and accessible way to develop a better understanding of the fixed and variable costs that are associated with grape growing.

“The calculator lets growers easily see the contribution of different components to the overall cost of growing grapes, the impact of things like an increase in the cost of water or changes to yield and what income is required to break even or make a profit,” Dr Waters said. “This helps to empower growers to make more informed business decisions.”

Both projects have been delivered with support from Charles Sturt University, NSW DPIRD and Food Innovation Australia Limited. WaaS will be hosted on the NSW Wine website from July 2025 at www.nswwine.com.au and the Grape Growing Cost Calculator is accessible today at www.wineaustralia.com/market-insights/gpcc.

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