Argentina has a plan – News This Month
* The Argentine wine industry, taking a page from Australia’s Strategy 2025, has developed a Strategic Plan for Viticulture designed to increase the value of exports to $2 billion by the year 2020. The Australian plan is generally credited with helping that country become one of the most powerful of the wine exporting nations.
National and local government, wineries, growers, universities, and national agencies like the National Institute of Viticulture, the National Institute of Agriculture Technology, and the Argentine Association of Viticulture are all contributing to the plan.
Flavio Senetiner, director of Viniterra Winery in Mendoza, welcomed the initiative. “We did not have a marketing plan. We realized that our activities were in need of some ideas and proposals which would enable us to develop and achieve long-term goals,” he told decanter.com.
The Strategic Plan will be financed through special taxes levied on the whole of the viticultural community. Funds will be made available for market research, promotion, advertising, trade shows, special courses and seminars, technical assistance and activities to encourage dialogue between wineries and growers.
“The idea is to provide both winemakers and growers with an excellent tool to access marketing channels and new technology, as well as managing different resources which will help them support such activities,” said Sergio Villanueva, president of the Argentine Association of Viticulture.
Angel Vespa, president of the Argentine Wineries Association, said this year the viticultural industry had “dramatically increased,” with 71 new wineries opening. “This plan will hopefully reinforce our performance in the long run. Due to the low level of humidity this year, vines are extraordinarily healthy and wine tourism rose as much as 40% during 2003.”
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