Wine Australia helps foster and encourage profitable, resilient and sustainable Australian winegrape and wine businesses by investing in research and development (R&D), building markets, disseminating market information and knowledge, encouraging adoption and ensuring compliance through our regulatory functions.

We work closely with our representative organisations, wine sector bodies and our partners to support the long-term success of the Australian grape and wine community. 

What we do

We are an Australian Government statutory authority governed by the Wine Australia Act 2013 (the Act).

Our powers and responsibilities come from the Act that also sets out our role, which is to:

• coordinate or fund grape and wine R&D, and facilitate the dissemination, adoption and commercialisation of the results
• control the export of wine from Australia, and
• promote the sale and consumption of wine, both in Australia and overseas.

Our funding sources

We are funded by grapegrowers and winemakers through levies and user-pays charges, and by the Australian Government, which provides matching funding for research, development and adoption (RD&A) investments.

We have four primary sources of funding:

1. Research, development and adoption (RD&A) funding
   The grape research levy  (grapegrowers pay $2 per tonne of winegrapes crushed) and the R&D component of the wine grape levy  (wine producers pay $5 per tonne of winegrapes crushed) are matched dollar-for-dollar by the Australian Government.
2. Marketing funding
   Wineries pay the promotion component of the wine grape levy in a stepped amount per tonne. The promotion component is payable on grapes delivered to a winery once the threshold of 10 tonnes has been reached.
   Wine exporters pay the wine export charge on wine produced in and exported from Australia. The amount of levy payable is based on the free-on-board (FOB) sales value of wine for the levy year.
3. Regulatory funding
   Regulatory activities are funded on a cost-recovery basis through activity-based fees. 
4. User-pays activities
   Wine businesses, regional associations and state governments pay voluntary contributions to participate in marketing activities.

Our governance and operations seek to achieve the best possible return on the investment of our RD&A, marketing and regulatory funds.

Funding Agreement

Our Statutory Funding Agreement 2020–30 with the Australian Government ensures that the funding we receive from levies and matching Australian Government funds for eligible RD&A is expended prudently and in line with levy payers’ and the Australian Government’s expectations. 

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry  manages the funding agreement on behalf of the Australian Government.