Organic Wine Export Market Guide

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) administers the export program for the export of organic and biodynamic goods in Australia.

The primary objective of the program is to ensure that organic and biodynamic produce exported from Australia meets the requirements of importing countries, ensuring that international market access is maintained. The Department provides export certification and declarations in line with Australia's export regulatory framework and importing country requirements.

Australia’s organic regulatory export framework is made up of:

• the Export Control Act 2020
• organic specific legislation, including the Export Control (Organic Goods) Rules 2021 (Organic Rules)
• the National Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Produce (National Standard, Australia's organic export standard), and
• policy documents, including administrative arrangements which outline how approved certifying bodies must operate to ensure Australia's organic export framework operates as intended and the guidelines which outline the requirements for issuing and managing Organic Goods Certificates (OGCs).

The Organic Rules specify the certification requirements that must be complied with for the export of organic goods. Any product described as ‘organic’ or ‘biodynamic’ (or indication of similar meaning, including ‘biological’, ‘ecological’ and ‘in-conversion to organic or biodynamic’) in a wine’s description and presentation is considered an organic claim and is captured by the export controls. 

A step-by-step guide to exporting organic and biodynamic goods can be found on the DAFF website. 

National Standard

Organic and biodynamic produce for export must be certified by an approved certifying body, verifying that the produce has been prepared in accordance with the National Standard. Edition 3.8 entered into force on 1 January 2023.  

Under the National Standard, wine is defined as ‘the product of the complete or partial fermentation of fresh grapes, fruit and / or vegetables, or a mixture of that product.’ Standard 3.2 states that ‘organic wine shall be produced entirely from organic raw material, and only certain products and substances authorised in accordance with this Standard shall be allowed to be added.’