By Amy Looker
New Zealand’s Oyster Bay Marlborough Vineyards is reportedly in financial difficulty, following an announcement from the company that it has posted a loss of almost $600,000 in the past six months.
This is a slight improvement on Oyster Bay Vineyards loss of $830,000 last year, but it has still driven the company to seek waivers from its banks, with Oyster Bay Vineyards chairman, Sandy Maier, predicting that the situation will continue.
“Based on likely harvest conditions and current market prices for grapes, it is anticipated that Oyster Bay will operate at a loss for the 2010 financial year," he said.
The loss is being attributed to the massive glut of sauvignon blanc grapes in both Australia and New Zealand, with current prices for sauvignon blanc grapes falling to the lowest ever price of $NZ550 a tonne.
Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc is one of Australia’s top selling wines at an RRP of $19.99.