00:00 Hundreds of growers gathered near Barmara with the future of their industry in the riverland on the agenda.
00:08 They voted almost unanimously to reject a proposal from multinational company Accolade Wines.
00:14 We're not happy with them because what they're offering us, that's the mean offering they are starting to play with us.
00:23 The proposal would have allowed growers to sell part of their red wine contracts for $4,000 a hectare,
00:30 reduce contract lengths and cut the volume of grapes Accolade accepts by 20%.
00:35 $4,000 is nothing. What do you do with the $4,000? That's the cost only. We don't cover the cost even to pull the grapes.
00:42 I think the vote last night offered just a little bit of security back into the region.
00:48 The growers make up the near century old cooperative, which acknowledges the frayed relationship between growers and Accolade will need to be rebuilt.
00:57 We need to offer value to a major customer which is Accolade Wines and we've done that in the past and I can see how we can do that in the future.
01:06 Accolade Wines is yet to comment on the decision.
01:09 The 540 plus members of the cooperative supply about 10% of Australia's wine grapes.
01:16 Now the industry is banking on financial support from governments to address the oversupply, with more than 500 million litres of red wine in storage.
01:26 It's an industry at a crossroads.
01:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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