Andrew Calabria is justifiably proud of his family’s achievements over the past 76 years. Since arriving from Italy in 1927, they have built a world class wine producing and exporting business based at Griffith in New South Wales.
This year, Calabria Family Wines crushed 20,000 tonnes of fruit. After years of drought, this season delivered a bumper harvest the family hoped for an impressive return.
“I thought we would have been a successful vintage with yields and income up for those wines,” the 36-year-old says.
Instead, they are among many Australian wine producers trying to find new export markets, particularly for their red wine varieties.
China’s new five-year import duty of around 200 per cent has effectively closed the market to Australian table wine.
Andrew's father Bill Calabria at the Griffith winery. Source: SBS
According to Wine Australia, 2,361 wineries and 6,251 grapegrowers employ 163,790 full and part-time workers across 65 winegrowing regions, contributing over $45 billion annually to the Australian economy.
In March, China formalised import tariffs on Australian wine. The industry is now facing a $1.2 billion revenue hit.
Exporters of coal, barley and wood, also hit by China trade tariffs, have found new markets but smaller wine producers who relied on China are in a desperate situation.
“There are probably 1500 businesses that purely export to China or export about 80 per cent [of their wine to China], and they are really going to struggle,” says Tony Battaglene, CEO of Australian Grape and Wine.
“Many are going to go broke, they will not be around in the future.”
Ongoing international travel bans due to coronavirus restrictions are compounding the problem.
Australian Grape and Wine CEO Tony Battaglene. Source: Supplied
“It's fine to say let's find new markets, but not being able to get on a plane and go and sell your product is definitely hard,” Andrew Calabria says.
“We are living in a pandemic, so we cannot go over to share and taste our wines with distributors, importers and customers.”
The family expects a 10 per cent hit to their wine revenue this year.
This is not the first challenge to confront the Calabria family, one of Australia’s oldest wine producers. Over the generations they have already survived deep financial recessions, droughts and even a world war.
“The industry is resilient, and we've gone through many difficult times,” Andrew says. “But this will be tough, no doubt about it.”
Andrew's grandfather Francesco Calabria arrived in Australia in 1929, following his great-grandfather Domenico who had migrated from Southern Italy.
“It was a matter of survival. There wasn't enough food or income [in Italy] to support a growing family.”
Settling in Griffith, they worked hard to buy a small piece of land and originally farmed olives. Their wine making began in earnest in 1945 and their fortunes rose as post-war Australians gradually embraced table wine.
Andrew's grandfather Francesco Calabria and his wife Elisabetta. Source: Supplied
“My grandfather Francesco's homemade wine started to find commercial success with the influx of Europeans who migrated over to Australia and were looking for it,” Andrew says.
The Calabria family is determined to fight on and find new markets to help the business prosper.
“We know the sacrifices that our great-grandfather and grandfather made to build this business, and more importantly, build a life,” Andrew says.
