January third – WASHINGTON, DC– WineAmerica, the Nationwide Affiliation of American Wineries, is happy to report main early progress on certainly one of its high 2023 coverage priorities: A nationwide winery acreage survey overlaying all 50 states.
The breakthrough got here as a part of the large $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending invoice handed by Congress on December 23 and signed into legislation by President Biden. The precise language: “The settlement encourages NASS to reinstate the 5-year Winery and Orchard Acreage Examine and resume information assortment and reporting so grape, wine, and juice producers can stay aggressive and reply to challenges within the business.”
NASS is the Nationwide Agricultural Statistics Service of the USA Division of Agriculture which used to conduct such surveys till price range cuts eradicated them over a decade in the past. Two current Nationwide Financial Affect Surveys of the Wine Trade sponsored by WineAmerica demonstrated the very important have to reinstate them.
“We’re delighted at this step, and deeply grateful to Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer for together with this language within the invoice,” mentioned Jim Trezise, WineAmerica’s President. “Once we met with him within the Finger Lakes in early December, he instantly understood the significance of this as a significant first step.”
Now WineAmerica and its allies will search to get a selected dedication from NASS to conduct a survey which might ideally embody whole winery acreage, completely different grape varieties, their use (wine, grape juice, desk grapes, raisins), relative crop worth, full-time equal employment, and different measures of financial influence.
“This kind of info is important to precisely measure whole financial influence,” mentioned John Dunham of John Dunham & Associates which carried out each the 2017 and 2022 research for WineAmerica. “Grapes are the muse of the wine business, and dependable information is the muse of financial analysis.”
The 2017 research reported the wine business’s whole financial influence of $220 billion, and the 2022 research $276 billion–a 25% enhance regardless of the Covid period. All 50 states produce wine and embody 10,637 wine producers, present 1.84 million jobs, pay $95.5 billion in annual wages, entice 49 million vacationers, and pay a complete of $22.8 billion in taxes. Wine is the last word value-added product from the vine to the glass, and a strong financial engine.
“This step could be very encouraging in bolstering our efforts to safe dependable winery information for the business,” mentioned Michael Kaiser, Government Vice-President and Director of Authorities Affairs at WineAmerica. “We nonetheless have extra work to do in garnering extra assist in Congress and USDA, however this makes it a lot easier and sooner.”
WineAmerica had deliberate on requesting restoration of the winery survey as a part of the 2023 Farm Invoice, and nonetheless will so so, however together with it within the Omnibus spending invoice will vastly velocity up the method. The Farm Invoice is an enormous, sophisticated, five-year legislation that’s tough to go underneath the most effective circumstances however will doubtless be much more so with a brand new divided Congress beginning in January. Most definitely it is not going to be handed till the top of 2023 or later.
WineAmerica will instantly begin advocating for NASS to get the funding and approval to start creating the research parameters, for the reason that research itself will doubtless take appreciable time. Nonetheless, it will likely be of nice worth to all 50 states.WineAmerica is the Nationwide Affiliation of American Wineries headquartered in Washington, DC. The group contains over 400 vineyard members, 40 vineyard commerce associations, and a number of other suppliers from 41 states, and is broadly revered in Washington as a key advocate for the American wine business.
WineAmerica is the Nationwide Affiliation of American Wineries headquartered in Washington, DC, with a deal with grassroots public coverage advocacy on the federal stage to guard and improve the enterprise local weather for the American wine business. The group additionally features a State and Regional Associations Advisory Council (SRAAC) of vineyard commerce affiliation leaders from across the nation, and represents over 400 members from 46 states.
