CANBERRA: Australian wine trade and is likely to become the key to restoring export value to above $3 billion in the next couple of years. Exports to China rose from about $520 million to $848 million, or 63 per cent, in 2017, according to figures released by Wine Australia. Wine Australia chief executive Andreas Clark said Chinese sales had increased across all price points, from entry level to premium wines. Mr Clark said Australia’s sales to China were growing at a faster rate than competitors from Europe. He said the three major wine producers in Europe Spain, France and Italy had weather-related problems during the past year.Wine Australia said the value of Australian wine exports to all importing nations rose 15 per cent in 2017 to $2.56 billion well short of the more than $3 billion set in 2007 but the highest annual growth rate since 2004. In volume terms, Australian wine exports topped a record 811 million litres last year, a rise of 8 per cent on the previous year. China is Australia’s biggest customer, followed by the US with sales of $449 million, the UK on $348 million, Canada with imports of $187 million and Hong Kong on $118 million. Growing demand for premium Australian wine, particularly in northeast Asia, increased the value of bottled wine exports by 17 per cent to $2.1 billion, while the average price a litre for bottled wine grew by 3 per cent to a record $5.63,” Mr Clark said. Mr Clark said export value peaked at more than $3 billion in 2007 but dropped rapidly when the global financial crisis hit the following year. Export value slumped to $1.8 billion in those following years.
“So when you look at where we were at $1.8 billion and get back up to close to $2.6 billion last year shows a strong recovery,” Mr Clark said. It is important to not that when we hit that $3 billion peak, we were exporting a lot more bottled wine. When there was a big shift to exporting in bulk, particularly to the UK, we lost a lot of value. So on a like for like basis, our export value would be a lot higher if we were exporting as much in bottles now. Mr Clark said there were pleasing trends in the major markets. He said there had been strong growth in the premium wine sector in the UK. He said US retail data from the US showed Australian sales in the price segment of $11 or more had risen by 32 per cent in the past year.
