Riverina grape growers warn of looming mental health crisis as prices and exports dry up

The federal agriculture department forecasts that Australia’s wine grape growing industry will continue to contract over the next five years. Photograph: Jeremy Cass

When Anthony Baggio sold his vineyard near Griffith in 2021, he closed a 55-year chapter of farming in the region. He did not want to sell up, but with grape prices falling off the back of a shrinking export market he felt he had little choice.

“Even the prices we were getting three or four years ago, you’d just make ends meet and you’re not making any money,” he says. “You’re actually going backwards because you’re not making a profit.”