Grape growers in South Australia are bracing for another year of prices below the cost of production. But while the world is drinking less wine, a global shortage of olive oil is providing an opportunity.
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00:00These are some of the oldest vines in Australia's biggest wine region.
00:08In the depths of winter, the fruit is yet to bud, but when it does, the growers expect
00:14another year of low prices.
00:16But in between the rows, a new crop, olive trees, is bringing hope.
00:22The key thing about business is always evolving and we could see that olive oil was something
00:26that we could actually sell direct to our consumers, where we sell our wine.
00:33With a global oversupply of wine putting pressure on grape growers, Ashley Ratcliffe is looking
00:39for solutions.
00:40He's trialling super high density olive trees to diversify his business.
00:45It just made sense, a little bit crazy, my neighbours asked me what the hell you're doing,
00:49but we thought let's pull out the young vines, let's preserve the old vines and with the
00:52old vines we pulled out we put in Don Carlo olives.
00:58While the world is drinking less wine, demand for olive oil is growing.
01:04It's created a global shortage, something bulk wine and grape sales broker Blend Global
01:10sees as an opportunity, both in the domestic and international markets.
01:16Australia presently consumes more than double its own production of olive oil and we're
01:20relying on a lot of imports outside of the Mediterranean.
01:24While grape prices have been falling, the global olive oil prices have been increasing
01:29steadily and remaining consistent over the last 10 years.
01:33Demand is so high, Chantelle Kitson-Kass is working with a local council in the Riverland
01:38to find growers willing to swap grapes for olives to produce oil.
01:44Olives grow perfectly in the Mediterranean climate which is perfect for the Riverland,
01:47they've got the space, they've got the water and there's a lot of synergies between grapes
01:53and high density olives.
01:55It's something the council wants to encourage.
01:58With river communities dealing with financial losses from too much wine, local council mayor
02:04Ella Winnell says diversifying crops is important.
02:08There's probably not many people in the Baribamara community that aren't either employed by the
02:12wine industry or know someone closely who's employed by the wine industry.
02:16The council is so keen to take advantage of the olive oil boom, it's exploring supporting
02:21a processing facility which would also bring manufacturing jobs to the region.
02:26The olive opportunity has some really unique aspects of it that will have long term benefits
02:35for our community.
02:36Simon Robb manages one of a handful of Australian nurseries that grow super high density olive
02:42crops.
02:43He says this method of farming is more efficient and also allows grape growers to keep the
02:48same infrastructure.
02:51The crossover of equipment, vine equipment and olive equipment in those initial years
02:58is the same equipment which is very attractive to much of the industry at the moment with
03:04the reduced capital upfront cost of starting a new crop.
03:07These small olive trees are in big demand with growers waiting about 18 months to get
03:13their hands on them, but once the trees are in the ground they can bear fruit in as little
03:18as two years.
03:19So you've planted these, what, November and they're already this tall?
03:23Yeah, yeah, they really, they really grew really well.
03:25Ashley Ratcliffe is hoping other growers will get on board and embrace this quick change.
03:31Well it's quite interesting, some of their backgrounds, a lot of them are Greek and Italian,
03:34I mean they're very good at growing olives so they're quite excited to do something that
03:39maybe their grandparents did many years ago.
03:43For more information visit www.fhwa.dot.gov