The UK wine sector is one of the fastest growing and most innovative areas of British agriculture, but needs targeted Government support to help producers sell, invest and compete, WineGB chief executive Nicola Bates told Fruit Focus.

Speaking on the new Vines & Viticulture Stage at the 40th anniversary Fruit Focus event at Bradbourne House, East Malling, Ms Bates said the sector has reached an important stage in its development, with strong growth, rising quality and increasing consumer interest.

However, she warned the industry now needs practical support to unlock its next phase of growth, including protection for British-grown grapes, more investment funding, greater support for marketing, research and development, and the introduction of a new wine tourism relief.

Ms Bates said WineGB is working to help members “make wine, market wine and tell that story”, but added the sector faces a major challenge in building the workforce, consumer demand and policy support needed to realise its potential.

“By 2040, we’re going to need 30,000 employees within the space,” she said. “As it stands, we have about 3,300 full-time employees and about 10,000 seasonal workers each year. You can see that level of stretch which we need to get to if we want to realise the productive potential in our sector.”

She said the industry also faces a significant marketing challenge as it looks to convert more UK wine drinkers to English and Welsh wine and build export demand.

“How do we get the consumers who are drinking wine in the UK to drink our product?” she said. “How do we take our wines to the world so they are buying them? And how do we prove our quality?”

Ms Bates said the quality of English and Welsh wine is now a major strength, but the sector still needs to overcome outdated perceptions.

“We have exceptional quality wines, which my predecessors 10 years ago probably wouldn’t say with as much confidence as I am able to do,” she said. “Some people have a lagging understanding of the quality of wines. Some people have never tried English or Welsh wines.”

WineGB now represents about 500 members and around 70% of UK vineyard hectarage. Ms Bates said the sector is still dominated by small, passionate businesses, with around two-thirds of members making fewer than 10,000 bottles a year.

“When you’re talking about small businesses, you’re talking about families, you’re talking about love, you’re talking about passion,” she said. “And that then shows through.”

While the sector has grown rapidly, she said producers face challenges around stock, sales, climate volatility, crop protection, sustainability and access to skilled people.

The UK now has well over 1,100 vineyards and around 280 wineries, with 4,800 productive hectares under vine. Ms Bates said sparkling wine sales have grown significantly, from 2.2 million bottles in 2018 to 6.2 million bottles today.

“It’s been a three-times growth in six years,” she said. “A lot of that is UK-based, but also 90% of our export is sparkling wine. It’s what we’re predominantly known for.”

She said English and Welsh still wines are also improving rapidly and offer an important opportunity for the sector.

However, Ms Bates said sales growth has slowed as economic pressure affects consumer spending and people have fewer opportunities to try English and Welsh wine in restaurants and bars.

“People aren’t going out as much,” she said. “People are still having to trial and taste English and Welsh wine for them to be willing to buy a bottle. Where do they tend to do that? They do it in a restaurant. They do it in a bar. If you’re not going out, then you’re not getting to sample it quite so much, and that has a lag effect in terms of sales for the UK.”

She said retailers are increasingly stocking English and Welsh wine but need to do more to tell the story of the category.

“We are seeing retailers putting it in store more, but we have to support them to tell that story,” she said.

Ms Bates said WineGB’s manifesto for growth includes three core asks that would help move the industry forward. The first is to protect British-grown grapes and ensure only wines made from British grapes can be called British wine.

“You can call grapes grown outside of the UK British-made wine if it’s made in the UK, which for us seems like an anathema,” she said. “We want to protect our grapes, so only British grapes can be called British wine.”

She said WineGB also wants to prevent imported wine from being transformed in the UK into “Prosecco-like goods” that could take shelf space away from domestic producers.

The second ask is greater access to funding for equipment, wineries, presses, marketing, research and development, and education.

“We want to get grants back in for wineries,” she said. “We know people are investing in wineries and presses. They should be able to get the sort of support which you get in France or Spain.

“We’re talking about levelling the playing field. It’s the same for marketing, same for R&D and the same for education as well. If we can get an injection of cash into our sector at this particular point, which allows us to continue that sort of growth, that would be incredibly useful.”

The third ask is a targeted wine tourism relief, which would remove duty on wine sold at vineyards and wineries up to a threshold of 50,000 bottles.

Ms Bates said the proposal would support smaller producers, encourage tourism, create jobs and help businesses reinvest in growth.

“If you go to a vineyard or winery in the UK and buy a bottle of wine or buy a glass of wine out of the bottle, we’re saying that you don’t pay duty,” she said.

“That duty saving would then go back into the business, and they will make investments. It’s not about reducing the price of a glass of wine or a bottle of wine at the vineyard. Really, this is about a way of finding money which can be invested back into a business. Back British vineyards.”

She said the relief would be especially important because many small producers sell a significant proportion of wine directly from the cellar door.

“Most of our microbusinesses are selling about 60 or 70% of their products at the cellar door,” she said. “So, it would be a real saving of money, which they can then do something more useful with than giving the Exchequer the most expensive amount of duty for a domestic wine producing country in the world.”

She added the measure would represent a relatively small cost to Treasury, but a meaningful injection of cash for producers.

“That would be about a £6 million investment into the UK for the Treasury,” she said. “If we could put that into our sector year by year, that would be a really useful injection of targeted cash.”

Tourism was highlighted as one of the strongest growth opportunities for the sector, with around 1.5 million visitors now going to UK vineyards.

Ms Bates said wine tourism is helping consumers build a personal connection with English and Welsh wine.

“It’s about making memories and connections with friends,” she said. “That’s what they’re remembering when they’re opening that bottle of wine at a later point.”

She added: “We expect those sales and visitor numbers to continue to increase.”

Sustainability was also a key theme, with Ms Bates pointing to the Sustainable Wines of Great Britain Certification Scheme as an increasingly important proof point for consumers, retailers and export markets.

She said 43% of UK vineyard hectares are now Sustainable Wines of Great Britain approved, with some retailers using the certification as a requirement.

“It’s becoming a really important indicator for people when they’re looking to choose wines,” she said.

The new Vines & Viticulture Stage was introduced at Fruit Focus this year to reflect the growing importance of viticulture within UK horticulture. The stage brought together growers, suppliers, researchers and industry leaders to discuss the technical, commercial and policy issues shaping the future of English and Welsh wine.