AUS: Wine grape growers bracing for 'lowest prices in years' after early industry forecast

(ABC) - Australian wine grape growers are facing more hardship, with the industry's peak body warning prices for their produce could be the lowest in years.

Major wineries which source their grapes from warm, inland regions like South Australia's Riverland and Victoria's Sunraysia have released their first prices for the 2014 season.

Winegrape Growers Australia says they are down as much as 30 per cent on last year and expects the trend to continue in other grape growing areas.

Executive director Lawrie Stanford says many growers are likely to be forced out of the industry because current prices are unsustainable.

"Those prices are extremely desperate, they're extremely low, they're well down - up to 30 per cent on last year," he said.

"Quite clearly, if prices are low in the warm inland areas, I think that what we can expect is for that to have a flow-through effect for the industry.

"Probably the only area that is immune are the very highest grade of grapes."

Mr Stanford says ongoing oversupply in the industry is continuing to drive prices down and some growers are now bracing for a fifth-straight annual loss.