Wine Australia

Opportunity for

• Agritech solution providers, innovators and commercial partners interested in licensing or partnering to integrate into existing or new platforms

Opportunity for

• Agritech software providers, product developers, innovators and commercial partners interested in commercialising in-field fruit maturity measurement technology to combine with existing or new platforms.

Opportunity for

• Agritech software or hardware providers, innovators and commercial partners interested in access to wine grape yield predictions to integrate into existing or new platforms

Opportunity for

• Agritech platforms to access grape vine water status data to combine with other measures
• Technology hardware manufacturers to partner on the development of in- field grape vine units

Opportunity for

• Agrifoodtech companies interested in trialling later stage technologies in the grape and wine sector
• Grape and wine value chain participants interested in trialling later stage technologies

Opportunity for

• IoT / technology hardware manufacturers interested in new products and services
• Digital platform developers interested in new products and services
• Agtech distributors and consultants interested in new products and services

Opportunity for

• Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) manufacturers interested in new products and services
• Digital platform developers interested in new products and services
• Contractors servicing grape and wine sector interested in developing new products and services
• AI prediction and AgTech companies interested in yield prediction products and services

Opportunity for

• Digital platform developers interested in new products and services
• Decision support companies interested in new products and services
• Hardware development companies interested in new products and services
• Existing platform companies interested in integrating the solution

The broad aim of this cross-sectoral project is to develop a common framework for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting that is transparent, trusted and relevant for Australia and can be broadly adopted across all agricultural industries.

The lack of a national standard for the health of planting material in Australia means that growers have no guarantee that the planting material being supplied to them by nurseries is disease free or of a certain provenance. Phase 1 of this project will address the framework required to underpin a new national standard for grapevine planting material, which will be customer-focused, independently audited, transparent, aspirational, inclusive and allow for continuous improvement.

This project will develop a fully integrated network of air quality sensors to provide real-time data on smoke dose and the risk of smoke taint in winegrapes. Accurate prediction of the doses which cause smoke taint will enable the emergency sector to organise and conduct planned burns more effectively and with less risk to agricultural industries, particularly the wine industry.

This project aims to deliver an early warning network of smoke sensors that assesses vineyard exposure to smoke in North-East Victoria, one of the most bushfire-prone wine regions in Australia. The network of 100 sensor stations will record, analyse and report the exposure of wine grapes to individual smoke events and accumulated seasonal smoke exposure. An electronic dashboard will provide information back to producers and inform critical business decisions such as grape testing, vineyard management, and winemaking strategies to manage smoke effects. The network has the potential to be deployed nationally and exported.

The key purpose of this project is to improve the management of grapevine viruses such as Leafroll and Shiraz Disease that cause reduced vine vigour, quality and yield. As well as a Best Management Practice Guide for virus management in established vineyards and new plantings in Australia, the project will identify knowledge gaps to be addressed by future research.

Certain plant species grown in and around vineyards can provide tangible benefits, such as supporting predators of common vineyard pests. This project aims to expand knowledge of the benefits of ground cover species and different types of adjacent vegetation.

The aim of this project is to develop management strategies that irrigated, rain-dependent vineyards can apply during a drought to minimise the loss of yield and grape quality. This involves better understanding of vine and cover crop water use.

Phylloxera is a tiny yellow aphid that feeds on the roots of grapevines, killing them. This project is a next-phase research program to help protect Australian vineyards cope with phylloxera through more effective surveillance, improved selection of resilient rootstocks, disinfestation procedures and knowledge of Australian phylloxera ecology.