Domestic sales of Australian wines fell 5.0% to a seasonally adjusted 33.1m litres in February from January and 5.2% compared to the same period last year, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.


However, the tough domestic situation was relieved in part by continuing growth on the international market. Exports of Australian wine leapt 35% to 36.2 million litres valued at A$165.3 million in February compared with January.


Year on year, Australia exports reached 484.6m litres, worth A$2.4 billion in the 12 months through February 2003, up 26.8% in volume and 23.2% in value over the previous corresponding year.