Riverland Wine Industry Development Council Inc. (Riverland Wine) is undertaking the ambitious task of building a database of its vast membership from the ground up, with assistance from Vinehealth Australia.

This will require each of its almost 1000 members opting in voluntarily to provide Riverland Wine with their business details, which are held securely by Vinehealth Australia in the Vineyard Register.

Capturing this information will positively change the status quo for all in the Riverland region as currently there is no systematic way for Riverland Wine to understand who their members are, or to communicate with them.

Riverland Wine’s motivation is pure and twofold: to better serve their membership and to better manage the collective resources of the region, paid by the members through their contribution to the Primary Industry Funding Schemes Act 1998 (SA).

“Historically, Riverland Wine has had very low visibility of our membership. As the body that is responsible for championing the region and ensuring that we successfully advocate and deliver a range of services for these wineries and growers, we are acutely aware of the challenges the region is facing, and how this knowledge gap creates limitations in our ability to serve them,” Chris Byrne, executive chair of Riverland Wine said.

“It is our number one priority to better understand who our membership is, and to therefore build knowledge around how best to service the members individually and as a collective group.

“This is the driving motivation behind the membership database project.

“We feel that in unity and number our potential to influence decisions for the benefit of all is greatly increased. We hope for an active and enthusiastic response by the members to help us build a stronger Riverland wine region together.”

As the face of the Riverland wine industry, and its membership organisation, Riverland Wine strives to successfully advocate and deliver a wide range of services for winemakers and grapegrowers who contribute to the Primary Industry Funding Schemes Act 1998 (SA).

Under the Scheme winegrape growers pay a contribution on grapes they deliver for processing into wine; and winemakers pay a contribution on both grapes grown and grapes purchased by them for processing into wine.

The request to all members is in the form of a letter from Riverland Wine, which provides detail on the project, and a letter and a consent form from Vinehealth Australia, which requests permission to provide information that it holds securely on its Vineyard Register to Riverland Wine.

There is no obligation to consent to this disclosure of information. Riverland Wine will store all provided information securely in the membership system and manage it in accordance with their Privacy Policy.

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