New Zealand Winegrowers is confident that all grapes grown in this country will be grown under sustainability targets within the next five years.

The organisation issued a draft sustainability policy position to grape growers and winemakers that would see all New Zealand grapes and wine produced under independently audited sustainability schemes by the 2012 vintage.

In a statement on the policy position, Winegrowers said sustainability will be the passport to trade. If growers and wineries are not able to produce and market wine sustainably, then ultimately there will be no place for them in the international market, the organisation says.

Winegrowers believes the industry is well-positioned to meet the sustainability target, with more than a decade’s in-depth experience with sustainability issues. The industry standard for sustainability - Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) - has been built over the past 13 years to the point where more than 60 per cent of the total vineyard area is managed under SWNZ rules. Wineries in the programme account for around 70 per cent of wine production.

Winegrowers says its has funded a wide range of research into sustainable production methods, and has been a key player in the development of the BioGro organic grape and wine standard.

The draft policy position follows an international review of SWNZ. The review examined sustainability in general and also looked at the performance of the SWNZ scheme. It confirmed the importance of sustainability issues, and areas of strengths and weaknesses in the SWNZ progamme.

Winegrowers says the review consulted widely in the industry on the best way to move forward into the future. As a result, it believes now is the time to take the industry to a new level of commitment to, and practice of, sustainability.

The organisation says the proposed 2012 target is just one part of the integrated response to the review. There are a number of other key milestones including a requirement for audited participation in a sustainability scheme if wines are to participate in New Zealand Winegrowers global marketing programme from vintage 2010.

Wineries and growers are being asked to comment on the proposal by mid-April. New Zealand Winegrowers is planning to implement the confirmed policy position for the start of the new financial year this July.