ACCC to study the wine grape industry

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced it is looking into competition issues, contracting practices, transparency and risk allocation issues in the wine grape supply chain. This follows grower feedback about competition issues in the industry via an online survey.

ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said: “Growers have told us they carry too much of the risk in their contracts, and many say there is a lack of competition between buyers for their grapes.

“Some growers have also told us that they receive limited pricing information and are subject to opaque quality standards imposed by winemakers, which can have a major impact on prices they receive for their grapes.

“We want to get to the bottom of these concerns and, if necessary, make recommendations to improve the competitiveness of the market.”

The ACCC has released an issues paper and is seeking written and oral submissions on: the level of competition between purchasers of wine grapes; bargaining power and risk allocation across the entire supply chain; issues around price transparency and quality assessment; and the nature of contracts between growers and winemakers. It will also cover the effect of the existing voluntary industry code and dispute resolution processes, and the use of collective bargaining by growers.

It acknowledged that some people may be concerned about adverse reactions from commercial partners, and some firms may be reluctant to provide potentially commercially sensitive data. The ACCC said that it would accept anonymous or confidential submissions.

“We want to hear from anyone involved in the industry, from any side, who has information relevant to this study. If there are those who’d prefer to remain anonymous, our teams are used to handling sensitive, confidential information and we encourage people to get in touch — whether it is on or off the record,” Keogh said.

Public forums will also be held in a number of wine grape-growing areas to hear directly from interested stakeholders.

After analysing all information, the ACCC plans to publish draft findings for further comment in the first quarter of 2019 and a final report before the end of June.

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