Grapes in Western Australia

According to the September Export Report, released today by Wine Australia, the figures indicate a much-needed turnaround in the Australian wine market’s fortunes, with the rate of value growth currently outpacing volume, which in comparison increased by 5% to 734 million litres.

In the last 12 months, the average value of exports above A$7.50/litre went up 7% to a record A$15.45/litre. Meanwhile exports of Australia’s highest-priced wines (above A$50/litre) rose 54% to a record A$133 million. While the segment accounts for only 0.2% of total exports, it’s worth 7% of the country’s total value.

“These export results are unambiguously good news for our grape and wine community”, said Wine Australia’s chief executive officer Andreas Clark.

“Clearly it’s still early days and the improvement we’ve seen in exports in the last 12 months hasn’t yet flowed through to the grape growing community at large but there are pockets of growers who reported improved prices in vintage 2015 and we hope to see this trend continue next vintage”.

Mr Clark said the figures were a sign that Wine Australia’s long-term strategic plan to establish Australia as a fine wine producing country was being embraced by our winemakers and global customers.

“We’re seeing the strongest rates of growth in our premium price segments”, he said. “Wines above A$10 per litre grew in value 28% to A$426 million, a record for this segment. Wines in the A$20-$50 segment increased 13% to A$88 million.”

The average value of bottled exports also increased 4% to A$5 per litre, while in comparison the average value of bulk exports fell by 4%.

Looking at Australia’s export markers, Asia is not its biggest growing region, with exports to this region increasing by 31% to a record A$644 million. China again saw the strongest growth rising 47% in value to a record A$313 million. Japan continued to see an increase in bulk wine exports, up 388% as exporters benefit from the removal of tariffs under the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA). Since JAEPA came in to force, value is also up 14 per cent to A$35 million.

The UK remains Australia’s biggest export market by volume, which increase by 2% 250 million litres, however value declined by 2% to A$370 million. The drop in value can be attributed to the 5 per cent decline in the value of bulk wine exports to A$215 million.

Exports to Germany increased in value by 10% to A$51 million while exports to Finland increased 12% to A$15 million. In the US, exports declined 4% to A$428 million, rising in the last quarter by 12% A$117 million. Meanwhile Australian exports to Canada grew 4% in both value and volume to A$189 million and 63 million litres respectively.

Australia’s top five export countries by value were:

US – down 4% to A$428 million

UK – down 2% to A$370 million

China – up 47% to A$313 million

Canada – up 4% to A$189 million

Hong Kong – up 24% to A$118 million