Wine Australia has announced the engagement of Map of Ag Australia to build the digital platform for the National Vineyard Register that aims to provide a nation-wide resource to support balancing supply and demand and industry initiatives.
The National Vineyard Register will provide a modern, user-friendly, map-based interface for winegrape growers to securely input planting information and for the sector to derive important data-driven insights and trends at a national, state and regional level.
The National Vineyard Register project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as part of the Grape and Wine Sector Long-term Viability Support Package. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry the Hon Julie Collins MP said the Australian Government continues to back Australia's world-class wine industry.
"Australia has the best winegrapes, grapegrowers and winemakers in the world. We know recent years have been challenging, that's why our government is investing in practical, long-term solutions to support the sector's future. The National Vineyard Register will deliver data-driven insights to give industry the tools and information to support a resilient and sustainable grape and wine sector," Minister Collins said.
Map of Ag Australia is a trusted leader in agricultural data connectivity, analytics, and technology solutions. Their expertise spans a wide range of sectors, including horticulture, viticulture, dairy, arable and livestock, and they have successfully delivered large-scale, geospatially enabled platforms and bespoke software solutions for several organisations across these industries.
Wine Australia CEO Dr Martin Cole said that a number of extremely strong applications were received through the proposal process, but that Map of Ag Australia stood out due to the alignment of their previous experience and capabilities with the platform's requirements.
"The National Vineyard Register is an important platform that will provide meaningful insights for growers and the sector at a really critical time. The need for better data on which varieties are grown by region was identified as a key priority under the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan to help inform better decision making by wine businesses in the context of a persistent oversupply. It has an ambitious timeline and the building of the digital platform is a vital component of the project. Andrew Cooke and the team at Map of Ag Australia impressed us with their depth of understanding of the importance of building solutions that are not only technically robust but also tailored to the specific and evolving needs of the grape and wine sector," Dr Cole said.
Map of Ag Australia Chief Technology Officer Andrew Cooke said that he was delighted and honoured that Map of Ag Australia been chosen for this significant project for the sector.
"Map of Ag Australia is committed to delivering a solution that will meet the needs of the Australian grape and wine sector. Our approach combines deep domain knowledge with a focus on usability, data integrity and security, ensuring that our clients receive platforms that empower users, facilitate industry collaboration, and drive measurable outcomes. Through the National Vineyard Register, we're looking forward to helping deliver a platform that will support growers to make informed decisions and track performance over time while increasing efficiency and building digital capability across the sector," Mr Cooke said.
The National Vineyard Register build will commence in early March with a discovery and design phase to fine-tune the functionality of the platform. A core group of volunteer growers will assist with input to the design, while stakeholder groups will be consulted along the way. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of April, with the build to be finished and the platform operational before the end of 2026.
The platform is expected to be flexible to allow data to be entered in different ways. In South Australia, Wine Australia is working on a collaborative agreement with Vinehealth Australia where grapegrowers may have their data provided anonymously to the National Vineyard Register through Vinehealth Australia, to streamline collection and prevent duplication of data entry while ensuring a single source of truth regarding plantings.
