Despite the looming wine shortage, Australia’s wine exports are still trucking along with dramatic increases in volume and value. For the year ended September 30, the value grew by 9% to AUS$3.02 billion, while volume grew by the same amount to 804 million litres. To put that in perspective, domestic sales for the year ending August 31 were nearly 444 million litres. With every passing month, the Australian wine industry becomes significantly more dependent on its export success. Good news is that the decline in price per litre exported is slowing, with just a 0.4% reduction between this year and that previous to it. The principal growth markets over the year ended September 30 are The Netherlands (50.3% by volume to more than 23 million litres), China (29.8% by volume to more than 21 million litres) and New Zealand (19.1% by volume to more than 34 million litres). Growth by volume has slowed in the US and Canada, but increased in value per litre by 4.0% and 13.7% respectively. While prices per litre are still declining in the UK (by 5.3%), the volume of wine sales over the year increased there by 9%. Perhaps surprisingly, France is now Australia’s 11th major export wine market, with a dramatic 30.4% increase by volume to nearly 10 million litres. It’s pleasing to send coals to Newcastle!
