The official figures for this year's wine grape harvest have been announced - South Australia's Riverland and south-east growers say they come as no surprise. Meanwhile, the impact of the drought on the Riverland's grape and citrus industries has been outlined in a report due to be presented to the State Government today. It has been nearly a year since the region's wine grape growers held a rally calling for action. The report also states that if the drought continues, production next...

Some industry leaders and positive-spin journalists have recently been denying any real problems in the local wine industry, despite plummeting grape prices and 2006 s decline in exports the first such slump since 1992. But some will be made nervous as it becomes clear that the 2007 vintage has delivered even more wine than initially projected. To an extent, increased yields in regions with lower-priced products are behind this record harvest: an estimated 1 335 876 tons, which is over...

Advertisement winter had been cold, it wouldn't have hurt us any, but we were at the point where many of the plants were thinking that spring was just around the corner when it got real cold," said Mark Longstroth, the Michigan State University Extension office's district fruit educator for southwestern Michigan. Most of the state's $275 million fruit crop is grown within about 20 miles of Lake Michigan, because of its moderating effect on the weather, and in southernmost Michigan....

Savvy farmers all over the country have discovered a practice that might not work as a nationwide agricultural policy, but that has allowed some economically inefficient orchards to thrive: Encourage yuppies and their progeny to come pick your fruit they'll pay handsomely for the privilege, buy more than they'd ordinarily consume, and then shell out for all sorts of other value-added products. Instead of paying workers to pick their fruit, they should try another strategy: making customers...

The bureau's report noted: "With increasing total wine grape production in recent years, stocks have been increasing and prices for wine grapes declining. If seasonal conditions remain drier than average this year and water allocations are reduced further, the bureau predicts production in 2007-08 could be around 930,000 tonnes. Even with average seasonal conditions, wine grape production is projected to only recover to 1.5 million tonnes, still 400,000 tonnes below record harvest," the...