Demand for South Australian wines is on the rise and Coonawarra wines are finding their way into alternative markets after the downfall of the Chinese wine market.

Balnaves of Coonawarra director and South Australian Wine Industry Association president Kirsty Balnaves said Coonawarra’s biggest wine export markets by value were currently Hong Kong, Singapore, UK and US.

“There are opportunities opening up but nothing that will replace China, China left a billion-dollar hole in the Australia wine industry and it is really difficult to fill, so small, organic growth, which is good, solid growth, it is good for all of us,” Ms Balnaves said.

“There are some positive signs I think for wine into China, but it is still a long way to go, and we just need to open up the doors and have some more respectful discussions and the government is working very hard at that.”

Regarding wine industry challenges, Ms Balnaves said shipping issues were slowly resolving, however the oversupply issue continued to loom large.

“We cannot solve it overnight and there is going to be some really difficult and heart-breaking decisions having to be made in our industry,” she said.

“There will be grapes left on the vines, there will be vines pulled out, it is still a really challenging environment for our wine industry to be in at the moment.

“It will be in every region, it is not just our region or the Riverland or the Barossa or McLaren Vale or Langhorne creek, it is all of us that are facing this problem.

“But we have to look at the positives, we have got to look forward and work out how to address them, export markets is where we are going to solve these problems, the domestic market is basically flat in terms of consumption.

“So good growth into the US, Canada, Malaysia and Thailand is great, the UK has been a long-term market for Australian wine and they are good, loyal, long-term customers.”

Ms Balnaves said another market that had been discussed was India, which she said had lots of potential and they had a preference for red wine.

“It is good to see that market hopefully opening up, but that too is going to take time,” she said.

Ms Balnaves said there were logistical challenges with the Indian wine market including varying regulations and labels in different states and wine comprised just 1% of alcohol sales, however this indicated potential.

“It is not the silver bullet, it is not going to solve all our problems, but again it is another one in the mix of working towards finding good export markets for really good Australian wine,” she said.

“It can only go up from 1% and if we get that happening and the governments get aligned and we start talking about working together, which they are, it is good news.”

According to Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Senator the Hon Murray Watt in a 2022 address to the Wine Australia update, in the year to September 30 Australia exported 627 million litres of wine.

This was equivalent to 836 million bottles worth over $2b in export earnings and South Australia is the biggest exporter, comprising approximately $1.31b of the total figure.

Ms Balnaves said Trade and Investment Minister Nick Champion was also running the South Australian Wine Ambassadors Club, which is run through the Department for Trade and Investment and will take 90 individual wines into six markets over the next two years.

“They are really working hard at getting South Australian wines into export markets which is great, they are doing a good job,” she said.

Ms Balnaves said everyone in the wine industry was helping each other through the challenges.

“The industry is working really well together, and we are all trying to solve the problems together which is a good thing,” she said.