Member for Mayo Rebekah Sharkie has urged the government to work with wine producers to secure customers in countries such as South Korea and India.

The Chinese government announced this week that preliminary tariffs up to 212% would be placed on Australian wines sold in China. They have accused Australian wine producers of 'dumping wine' into Chinese markets at below cost price. The industry has denied this is happening.

In May China accused of Australian of dumping barley into their markets and imposed an 80.5% tariff on that product.

The government has indicated that they will appeal the Chinese actions to the World Trade Organisation.

Ms Sharkie told the ABC on Wednesday that government needs to “very urgently work with growers, work with producers and look to secure other customers”.  

“There are a lot of growers, a lot of producers that are really hurting right now,” she said.

“Investing this money now is a good spend.”

The amount of McLaren Vale wine exported to China increased by 64% in the year 2017 to 2018. Total sales to China  in 2018 were worth $47.6M. The second biggest export market was Canada, at $13.3M.

The South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) has launched a new project to help SA wine producers diversify their export markets.  

The Emerging Markets Program will develop an online market intelligence resource and deliver a wine education program in Japan, Malaysia, South Korea and India.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud says he is extremely disappointed with the Chinese government’s decision.

“The Australian Government categorically rejects any allegation that our wine producers are dumping product into China, and we continue to believe there is no basis or any evidence for these claims,” he says.

“We will continue to work with our wine industry and Chinese authorities as part of the ongoing dumping investigation, but we will of course consider all of our options moving forward.

“Australian wine is hugely popular both in China and across the globe due to its high quality and we are confident that a full and thorough investigation will confirm this.”