Vote 'yes'!

The referendum followed several years spent considering ways to improve our current structure, and seeking member input. Our careful and deliberate preparation paid off: over 85% of those who voted agreed that New Zealand Winegrowers Incorporated should become a single unified industry body, with a single Board representing all growers and wineries, and replacing both the Wine Institute of NZ (WINZ) and NZ Grape Growers Council (NZGGC).

Since May, the NZW Board has been preparing for the transition, and we are on track for NZW Inc to take over smoothly from NZW from 1 July 2016.

But there is one critical step that you must take to make this a reality: we need members to vote to approve new levy orders in the levy order referenda which are running from 5 to 20 October 2016.

The current levy orders require grape levies to be paid to NZGGC, and wine levies to be paid to WINZ. We now need new levy orders that make the levies payable directly to New Zealand Winegrowers Inc. With the levy orders in place, we will ultimately be able to disestablish NZGGC and WINZ.

We strongly urge you to vote in the referenda, and to vote "Yes"! If you are in any doubt as to the great value you receive by paying the levy, read on.

What's different in the new levy orders?

• The new levy orders are substantially the same as the current orders, except:
• The levies will be paid to the new entity, NZW Inc, instead of to WINZ and NZGGC;
• The minimum payment for wineries will be removed (currently the minimum is $400);
• A maximum levy payment of $150,000 will be introduced for the levy on grapes sold; and
• The maximum levy payment by large wineries will be set at $450,000 (at current levy rates).

What value does New Zealand Winegrowers provide for your levy money?

New Zealand Winegrowers' sole reason for existence is to create value for our members – to do things collectively that members would not be able to do by themselves. We do this to protect the competitive position of NZ wine and to support the profitable growth of NZ wine.

Each year the Board reviews and approves a strategic plan that drives the priorities for spending to best create future value for you. Here's a snapshot of just some of the ways New Zealand Winegrowers is currently creating value for you with your levy money.

After years of quiet work, we were delighted earlier in the year when the government agreed to bring the Geographical Indications Act into force in 2016. This is a very important decision, one which is fundamental to protecting our international reputation. We have budgeted to invest over $200,000 in the year ahead to register all our important GIs to ensure they receive the protection they deserve.

We advocate for members' interests with the government, and with foreign organisations. We have made very good progress this year towards changes that will clarify the rules on the blending of international wine and New Zealand wine, and other changes to the Customs and Excise Act that should make the imposition of excise tax more flexible.

On the research front, we just released a new book on virus management – Leafroll 3 virus and how to manage it, and we have a new research partnership with MBIE focussing on vineyard ecology. We leverage your levy funds by securing millions of additional dollars of government and corporate research funding each year to create projects that would not otherwise be possible. A hot topic at Bragato this year was the first results from the research programme on lower alcohol and lower calorie wine – with more people now beginning to understand what this project is all about, and why it will be important in the future.

In terms of marketing, last year New Zealand Winegrowers hosted over 6,000 trade, media and consumers at masterclasses and seminars that featured over 570 different wines. We brought over 70 guests to New Zealand for the kiwi experience, and they made nearly 850 individual winery and regional visits. We work very closely with NZTE and have signed MoUs with Tourism NZ and Air NZ, all with the aim of telling our New Zealand wine story to an ever growing audience. In the year ahead there will be more seminars, more masterclasses and in summer the first International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration in Marlborough, followed by the Chardonnay and Sparkling Wine Symposium in Gisborne. To these events we will be bringing even more international guests from all of our key markets.

It's also been a busy year for our sustainability team. Sustainability is a key plank in the New Zealand wine offering to the market, and a crucial part of our reputation. In the past 12 months:

We have launched WiSE and Grapelink to much improved (although not perfect) ratings from members

International coverage of our sustainability initiatives has expanded hugely

We are in the midst of restructuring our Sustainability team to ensure it better matches our needs going forward, and in the coming months, we will be adding a Bio-security Manager to the team to lead our involvement with the critical biosecurity issues that are facing the sector.

Underpinning all this activity, all this reputation building, is the information that we provide to members. Above all else, members rate the information that we supply as highly valuable to their businesses.

As an example, our current new releases of information to members include:

• The 2015 Spray Schedule including the new on-line version, the Backpocket Grower
• 2015 grape price data
• 2015 Viticulture Monitoring Report
• 2015 Nursery Survey
• An updated Bell Gully Legal Guide
• An updated Guide to International Winemaking practices
• The new book on virus management
• A total of 34 different sessions held at the Bragato conference

With all this information, we aim to assist decision making by individual growers and wineries. Decision making that will lead to market place success for you as a levy payer, and an even better reputation for NZ wine.

Why should you support the levy?

In our recent member survey we asked members what their voting intentions were with respect to the levy referenda. Just under 50% said they would vote "yes", with 37% saying they did not know and a little over 10% said they would vote "no".

In considering this result I was struck by one of the comments from a "don't know" member. The member said "I can't say 'yes' because I don't know what the alternative is". That's a fair enough comment. So what is the alternative? From my perspective:

The alternative is that we are not united, the alternative is that you would no longer get all the information that you are currently provided with. Each of us would need to go and source for ourselves the information that we take for granted in the winemaking practice guide, the labelling guide, and the spray schedule. There would be no average grape price data.

We would not have the Bragato conference, no Air New Zealand Wine Awards, no inbound media and trade programme providing huge international media coverage for New Zealand wine, no industry funded research programme, and no support for export certification.

There would be no one to lobby the government on market access issues, on the sale of liquor issues, no one focussed on revision of the Customs and Excise Act, no industry voice on RMA issues, no cohesive voice requesting improved controls on bulk wine exports, no one advocating on so many issues on behalf of every single grower and winery in New Zealand.

There would be no funding of the activities of regional winegrower organisations, no support for Organic Winegrowers, no MOU with the Nursery Association, and no Grafted Grapevine Standard.

I could go on. I am not saying New Zealand Winegrowers is perfect – we are not and never will be. But what I know is that the New Zealand wine industry is far better off with a unified, focused and efficient industry organisation acting for and on behalf of you, than without it.

So check your inboxes now. Find that email from Electionz.com, open it, and vote "YES" to the levy. You will be voting for and investing in the success of your own future.

Steve Green
Chairman
New Zealand Winegrowers