Wine Market Reform: A Tale of Two Markets and Their Legal Interaction (original) (raw)

The Next Steps Forward for Protecting Australia's Wine Regions

Culture Area Studies eJournal, 2016

The Australian wine industry is attempting to transform its reputation as a producer of generic mass produced wine to a producer of premium regional wine. However, with no emphasis on wine typicality, Australia’s legal framework of wine geographical indications is not well placed to promote and protect Australia’s wine regions. In this article we explore the framework’s genesis as an indication of source rather than a true geographical indication framework that links wine characteristics with place. We analyse case law and subsequent legal reform designed to correlate Australian wine law with international developments, noting that the reform has occurred after almost all of Australia’s existing wine geographical names and their boundaries have been determined. We consider whether future geographical names and their boundaries should be determined on a different basis, compare different legal models that will facilitate the promotion of wine typicality and regionality, and suggest l...

The Proposed 'Wine Restructuring Action Agenda' and Alternative Policy Options for the Australian Wine Industry

The Australian grape-growing and wine producing industry enjoyed meteoric growth from the early 1990s onwards, with wine sales forming an increasingly important element of both national export earnings and farm-sector income. Despite this success, a recent downward slump in industry profitability and a dampening of demand for wine has resulted in a call for governmentassisted intervention, which would include a national "vine-pull". This paper examines the "Wine Restructuring Action Agenda" (WRAA) proposed by a suite of industry bodies, and in particular the vine-pull policy option, in light of its predecessor, the vine-pull scheme of 1985-87. We argue that past experience suggests that both state and federal governments, and the industry itself, ought to explore the other options contained in the WRAA more fully, and indeed other emerging proposals for industry innovation and "light touch" regulation, when addressing the long-term sustainability of the Australian wine industry.

Globalization of the world wine market and restructuring of the supply-side

2006

The wine market has experienced major transformations in the past thirty years, with a consumption collapse per capita in the historical Southern European producing countries and the emergence of new actors in America and Oceania. The result of this was a structural gap between supply and demand, generating wine-growing prices and income instability, mainly in the European Union and, more recently, in Australia. This alteration goes with a restructuring of the supply, with the emergence of an oligopoly with fringes1 already observed in other agrifood sectors. A dominant group of powerful multinational firms has settled in, based on a high-scale strategy, strong marketing of products and the capture of distribution networks. This strategy finds its financial resources in the growing financialisation of corporate governance. It appeals to public authorities, especially European ones, for a reform of the institutional sector-based framework.

The Governance of Grapes: The NSW Inquiry into the Wine Grape Market and Prices (2010) – An Assessment

2012

The contribution of the grape growing and wine making industries to Australia's continued economic prosperity is under threat. While international market dynamics are often cited as the cause, the problem of oversupply and more specifically calls for government intervention were the focus of the recently completed NSW Legislative Council's Standing Committee on State Development Wine Grape Market and Prices Inquiry (Catanzariti Inquiry, 2010a). This paper examines the process and outcomes of the Inquiry and the NSW Government's response to its recommendations. It is argued that a mandatory Code of Conduct ought to be adopted by the industry to govern the relationships between winegrape growers and wine makers.

Managing the Quality Wines beyond Policies and Business Strategies

Review of contemporary business research, 2015

The premise, which has always characterized legislation for Appellation of Origin (or Geographical Indications) as an indicator of quality wines is represented by the dogma of the real or imagined interaction between the vine variety, territory, and method of production and wine business and marketing strategies. This dogma determines the variability of the range of products and supports the thesis according to which the smaller the area of origin, the easier it is to determine product homogeneity and typical characteristics. Refuting this dogma means dismantling the European model behind DOs. The aim of this paper is to try to make an answer to the following questions: a) How to regulate the high quality wines located to the upper side of the quality wine pyramid and how to cover the gap of the EU wine policy? b) Introducing a business strategy like a new wine category-inside the GI-on the top of the quality pyramid does increase the total market size and prices of the GI? c) What will be the effect on equilibrium price and quantity within the GI? The questions could be addressed following a double approach. The first examines the quality wines follows the policy approach and describes the different level of regulation in the European scenario. The second takes as an example the history of Super Tuscan wines. The framework that supports the hypothesis and a description of the six theoretical assumptions that form part of the paper will be presented analyzing the political constraints. Here we will present the necessary theoretical background for modeling and some adaptive problems will discussions in the final part.