Australasian Agribusiness Review
Volume 22 - 2014
ISSN 1442-6951

Volume 22 - 2014 - Paper 1 (pp. 1 - 13)

Can we explain variations in winery ratings in Victoria?

Euan Fleming, Stuart Mounter, Bligh Grant and Garry Griffith

The scoring of wines and the ratings of wineries is the source of much debate. In this paper we attempt to explain variations in winery ratings in Victoria by examining two winery rating systems, the winery 5-star ratings system of Halliday and the WineBoss version that modifies the Halliday system, to obtain a consensus industry rating from a variety of sources; in conjunction with a limited number of other data about the wineries that are rated. We use ordered logit models and odds ratios on a sample of rated Victorian wineries (291 in the Halliday sample and 331 in the WineBoss sample) to see which predictor variables increase the odds of a winery being in a higher-rated category.
Wineries that are older, use a consultant winemaker and/or produce predominantly red wines are more likely to be in a higher-rated category than those wineries that do not; conversely, wineries that use a contract winemaker and/or are located in a number of particular regions of Victoria are more likely to be in a lower-rated category than those wineries that do not. All of these results are as expected and confirm previous research. However, neither the size of the winery in terms of output nor whether the winery has other revenue sources, such as a restaurant, has any significant correlation with winery rating. The paper concludes with some suggestions for further research.

Volume 22 - 2014 - Paper 2 (pp. 14 - 26)

Economic issues surrounding wheat quality assurance: the case of late maturing alpha-amylase policy in Australia

Ross Kingwell and Chris Carter

Late maturing α-amylase (LMA) is a genetic defect in some wheat lines that when triggered by particular environmental conditions damages the grains’ starch and reduces its suitability in processing. To lessen the risk of LMA expression in Australia’s wheat crops, a testing regime is now part of the nation’s varietal classification system.  This paper analyses the impact of relaxing the testing regime and thereby providing farmers with the option to grow higher yielding varieties with higher risks of expressing an LMA defect that causes a price downgrade. We model the potential for quality downgrade by incorporating an expected price into the wheat supply and demand functions. The expected price is generated using the price differential between milling and feed grades and the probability of LMA exhibition. The net benefit from shifting between the current and more relaxed testing regimes is evaluated as the change in producer surplus. The analysis is based on the Western Australian wheat industry that supplies around half of Australia’s wheat exports. Initial findings indicate that the expected net benefit to the wheat industry in Western Australia from a relaxation of the current LMA policy is around $18m per annum.