South Australia grape growers in Riverland represented from 1981 by CCW, Australia's biggest cooperative
Grape grower shareholders in the CCW (Consolidated Cooperative Winery), in South Australia’s Riverland, at the their annual meeting (below) in 2024.The cooperative, with history from 1922, produced its own wine under the Heart of the Murray label (top left). In 2023, members voted against an offer by Berri Estates winery to buy out growers' red wine contracts.
Images courtesy CCW (Consolidated Cooperative Winery) and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Rural, by Eliza Berlage.
Growers from Australia largest cooperative, CCW (Consolidated Cooperative Winery), in South Australia’s Riverland, rejected an offer in 2023 from Accolade Wine Group, owners of the Berri Estate winery, to sell their red wine contracts amid global oversupply.
With prices as low as $150 a tonne for grapes from inland wine regions, Accolade hoped the offer buying out CCW growers' red wine contracts at $4,000 per hectare would be taken up by those wanting to exit the industry. The proposal required more than two thirds of members' support but it was voted down by 314 members with only 17 in favour.
CCW cooperative was formed in 1981 from the merger of the South Australian Riverland’s Berri Co-operative Winery & Distillery Ltd and Renmano Wines Cooperative Ltd to become Australia’s largest independent grower cooperative. At the same time, the Berri cooperative’s Berri Estates joined Renmano Wines as Berri-Renmano Ltd, with Angle Vale Winery as a third partner.
Berri-Renmano Ltd absorbed South Australia’s Hardy wine company as BRL (Berri-Renmano Ltd) Hardy that in turn became in 2011, after a series of corporate transfers, the multinational Accolade Wine Group, owner of Berri Estates as the largest winery in the southern hemisphere, originally started by Berri Co-operative Winery & Distillery Ltd.
CCW, the preferred grape supplier for Berri Estates winery, represented a shareholder group of more than 600 wine grape growers or about 50% of the contracted wine grape production of South Australia’s Riverland region. The cooperative’s aim, drawing on uts history from 1922, was to get a fair return for grapes grown by its shareholders, many of them small to medium-sized primary producers.
CCW processed around 200,000 tonnes per annum though its growers covering about 8,000 hectares, with 52 winegrape varieties from the popular chardonnay and shiraz to the lesser known pinot gris and malbec. CCW helped growers manage their vineyards with a world class viticulture team giving advice to maximise yield and reduce the impact of pest and disease. Its board of directors had a vast collective generational knowledge of the wine grape industry. CCW growers also produced wine through their own label Heart of the Murray.
But getting a better price return for growers grapes sold to Berri Estates winery remained a key focus. Also in 2023, a dispute over prices paid for shiraz and cabernet sauvignon wine grapes between CCW and Accolade Wines was resolved after CCW launched legal proceedings.
