A 5-year $37 million co-investment agreement was signed on December 13 between Wine Australia and the CSIRO. The agreement will benefit the Australian grape and wine sector and consumers alike, with research into areas such as winegrape quality, climate adaptation and disease resistance under the microscope.
The agreement, which will run from 2017 to 2022, covers research and development activities that reflect a high level of strategic alignment between the two partners, allowing for longer term strategic investments that will benefit levy payers and the whole Australian wine sector.
Key grape and wine sector priorities to be addressed under this agreement include:
- developing and evaluating new winegrape varieties with robust disease resistance
- breeding new rootstocks with greater tolerance to pests, salinity, heat and water stress
- producing wines with unique flavours from grape varieties bred specifically for Australian conditions
- developing new strategies to manage harvest timing and alleviate compressed ripening and harvest windows caused by climate change
- new digital technologies to better estimate yield, crop condition and grape quality, and
- future proofing Australia’s grapevine germplasm.
Link: full media release
