Local business trying to mitigate impacts of Coronavirus

One local business that has already taken action to protect itself from the potential decline in sales is Tahbilk Winery.

The much-loved family business normally exports about 35 per cent of its total production to China; however, chief executive Alister Purbrick said he predicted sales to China would slow for the rest of the financial year.

Mr Purbrick said everything hinged on the development of a vaccine.

“What I think can be predicted with some certainty is that the longer it takes to develop a vaccine, the longer the economic downside will continue for Australia and Australian exporters,” he said.

“There will be an extended lag time, even after the vaccine is available, before the Chinese economy gets back to normal.

“For example, if the vaccine is developed by June 2020, which is six months after the virus was first diagnosed, then it will take the Chinese economy at least 12 months to get back to where it was pre-coronavirus.”

Mr Purbrick said Tahbilk and the entire Australian wine industry could really be hurt if a vaccine was not available by the middle of the year.

The coronavirus has worsened the already rocky economic road for many businesses, including Tahbilk, after the problems of global trade wars and Australian bushfires.

“Australian businesses were already heading towards a tougher time,” Mr Purbrick said.

“The coronavirus has simply accelerated and crystallised the potential downside,” he said.

Mr Purbrick said people could help mitigate the flow-on effects of the virus for businesses by shopping locally and spending their money in Australia.

“For fire-ravaged communities — travel to fire-ravaged areas, including wine regions, do the tourist thing and buy their wines,” he said.

“For Australian wine generally, given the potential downside of the coronavirus, drink Aussie wine instead of imported wine.”

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