The patient is on the mend

摘要

The Annual Wine Industry Outlook Conference, held at Darling Harbour in November, is a bit like an annual medical—a check up on how things are and what the prospects might be for the immediate future. Well, this year's check up was very much like the last couple of years—'you're a bit crook but it's nothing serious and you should be back to normal in no time.' Most of the morning session at the conference was taken up with an analysis of the state of the industry with a particular emphasis on supply and demand. Lawrie Stanford, the Wine and Brandy Corporation's manager of information and analysis, again produced figures which showed that the Australian wine industry is very near to being in supply and demand balance in relation to fruit supply The clear message in Lawrie's figures was the demand for warm inland fruit (Riverland, Sunraysia and the MIA) and the softening of requirement for 'cool climate' fruit— which refers to all regions not covered in the warm inland definition.