00:00Wine grape grower Jim Giargis has painstakingly pruned his vines for decades but amid a blistering
00:10drought he's being forced to use more water to keep them alive. We used around about 30% more
00:17water than we normally have to use. It's a costly exercise. Water is bought and sold on a market
00:23similar to the stock exchange. Prices have surged from a historical average of $200 a
00:28megalitre to a high of around 350. In an industry where certain wine varieties haven't been selling
00:35growers are feeling the pinch. I mean at the moment we're losing you will lose tenfold if you grow it
00:42so there's some hard decisions have to be made by growers. Irrigation trusts supply water to vineyards.
00:48When growers can't pay their water bills they're forced to cut supply to avoid being penalised
00:54themselves. Eventually businesses like ours will have to make a decision on behalf of
00:59all of our members to reduce the risk around non-compliance. In Renmark grower Amanda Demas
01:06removed vines to diversify to better selling varieties. There's been no return for so many
01:12years now and I think this is the nail in the coffin. It's not only taking a financial toll.
01:18Growers are really struggling. Their mental health isn't good. Removing vines can cost
01:23up to $7,000 per hectare. Governments should subsidise growers that want to remove the vineyards
01:30and also help the people that want to actually exit the industry. But the state government says
01:38the industry needs to pave its own path forward. That sort of government intervention can have
01:43absolutely unintended consequences which could make it worse for growers rather than better.
01:49Growers caught up in a shifting market pleading for a sustainable solution.
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