WINE industry leaders around the region are encouraged to sign up to the Australian Grape and Wine code of conduct following advice from the annual Finlayson Lawyer Wine Roadshow.
The seminar was held in Coonawarra last month and focused on the recently released Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) report on the nation’s wine industry.
The report made 10 recommendations, including in quality assessment, grape pricing, fair contract trading, processing time and the code of conduct.
Balnaves of Coonawarra director Kirsty Balnaves said the take home message was adhering to the code of conduct, which outlines minimum conditions for grape purchase agreements and offers a dispute resolution process.
She urged vignerons to sign up to the code while it is still voluntary, saying it would demonstrate the industry was listening to the ACCC recommendations.
“Every grower from every region needs to get onto the website and sign up because if the ACCC look back on the recommendations and the code becomes mandatory that is a whole new ball game,” Ms Balnaves said.
“It is easy to sign up to and read the code and also shows the commission that we are listening to the recommendations and taking it seriously.”
Ms Balnaves said the seminar discussion focused on the relationship between growers and wineries and stressed the importance of checking contracts to ensure all clauses encompass the fair trading terms.
She said seminar attendees also questioned the uniform standards of grape testing which is currently being investigated by the commission.
“Obviously everyone wants to make sure it is all calibrated the same way,” she said.
“People were mostly trying to get their heads around what uniform testing would look like.”
