Australia harvest 'slashed by up to half'

[wineo]

Australia harvest 'slashed by up to half'
Felicity Carter

Australia's unrelenting drought looks set to slash the 2008 grape harvest by up to half, driving grape growers and wine producers out of business and forcing a structural change in the industry.

'The vintage could be down to around 800,000 to 1.3m tonnes, down from 1.9m tonnes,' Stephen Strachan, CEO of the Winemakers Federation of Australia told decanter.com.

At least 800 grape growers—more than 10% of the industry's 7500 growers...

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