As Australia struggles to maintain momentum in key wine export markets, new figures show that the country’s wineries are losing out to imports on the domestic front.
Sales of imported wine in Australia rose by 10% in value to AUD473.3m for the 12 months to the end of June 2009, show figures released yesterday (28 January) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Imported wine volumes rose by nearly 17% to 62m litres.
While imports continue to be dwarfed by sales of domestic wine, foreign producers are taking vital share off an Australian wine industry that is producing up to 40m cases annually more than it is selling.
Domestic sales of Australian wine for the same period fell by 5% in value, to AUD1.96bn, and crept up by just 0.6% in volume, to 429.9m litres.
At the same time, Australian wine exports fell by 7.6% in value to AUD2.48bn, although did rise 5% in volume.
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By GlobalDataNew Zealand is one country taking advantage of Australians’ changing taste for wine.
Trade body New Zealand Winegrowers has named Australia a key export growth market, while Pernod Ricard will this year spend AUD2m (US$1.8m) on marketing its Montana wine brand in the country.