Australian Industry

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Warm, dry summers and deep, rich soils provide an excellent environment for Australian growers to produce world class table grapes.

Green, red and blue/black varieties of table grapes are produced by 1200 growers in the major growing regions of Sunraysia and the Murray Valley in Victoria, the Riverina in New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland.

Other growing regions include Carnarvon, the Swan Valley and South West of Western Australia, central New South Wales, the Riverland in South Australia and central Northern Territory.

Australia's geographical spread of production enables fresh table grapes to be available from November through to May.

Grapes were first introduced to Australia in 1788. Captain Arthur Phillip, founder of the colony of New South Wales planted a small vineyard with cuttings from South America and South Africa as one of his first ventures in agriculture.

Since then the Australian table grape industry has grown to more than 10,500 hectares producing about 120,000 tonne annually.

The industry is estimated to be worth $135 million annually. Just over half of the grapes produced are consumed domestically and the remaining 45% exported to an increasing number of markets around the world.