Cider Australia to host national cider conference in 2019

Australia’s cider industry body Cider Australia will host Australia’s 8th national cider conference next June.

AusCider 2019 will be the largest ever meeting of cider professionals in Australia and the first event to be held outside of Batlow, NSW where the conference was inaugurated seven years ago.

President of Cider Australia and co-founder of Willie Smith’s Cider Makers, Sam Reid, said the craft cider category was continuing to grow and the time had come to transition the conference to the industry body. As well as ensuring that the conference will continue to meet the needs of the many producer around Australia, it will also enable broader engagement with the Australian cider community as it is hosted around the country.

“The conference’s founding organisation, the Batlow CiderFest, has done an amazing job running the Batlow Cider Industry Conference for the past seven years, and I commend their foresight and commitment to cider industry development”, said Mr Reid.

Mr Reid acknowledged the extensive support provided to the conference by the NSW Department of Primary Industries since 2013 which has enabled the event to expand to its current stature.

“Cider Australia is pleased it can take the event to other major cider centres as this will allow more people to attend and build networks in Australia and internationally. It will also highlight the research and investments being undertaken in cider regions across Australia”, Mr Reid said.

Ray Billing, Batlow CiderFest chairman said, “Batlow CiderFest supports Cider Australia taking on management of the conference in 2019 as it shows our initiative was worthwhile and has met the cider industry’s need for education and technical development”.

“The agreement will allow the Batlow CiderFest to have a continued partnership with Cider Australia and help promote the event Australia wide. Their support will allow our team to explore other cider related activities to enhance the annual Batlow CiderFest and see the conference return to the region every five years. The Batlow CiderFest is held on the third Saturday of May and is a huge drawcard for tourism in the region”, said Mr Billing.

Full details on AusCider 2019 will be announced in the coming months.