Wine Industry Statistics

Domestic Wine Sales

According to the ABS, total Australian domestic sales—including imported wines—grew by 5.8% during 2006–2007 to a record high of 483.4 million litres (ML), up from 456.7ML in 2005-06 (See Table). Domestic sales of Australian-produced wine increased by 3.9% to 449.2ML, representing 92.9% of total domestic sales. Sales of Australian-produced sparkling wine grew 7.5% to 42.8ML.

The quantity of table wine sold in glass containers of less than two litres continued to increase (See Table). In 2006-07, 203.5ML or 53.3% of domestic sales were sold in glass containers less than two litres, comprising 102.9ML of red/rosé wine (up 12.1%) and 100.6ML of white wine (up 8.2%). The amount of table wine sold in soft packs fell again to 173.5ML, 5.8ML or 3.2% less than 2005-06. Soft pack sales comprise 45.5% of the total domestic sales. Other containers accounted for 4.7ML or 1.2% of total sales, significantly higher than the total for 2005-06 of 2.7ML. Other containers includes tankers, cans and rigid containers including glass two litres and over and the growth for “other” containers may well show the range of packaging options increasingly available to the wine industry and uptake of these by consumers.

Domestic sales of Australian brandy have continued their sixth consecutive year of downward movement, dropping to 510,000 litres in 2006-07. In 2000-2001 when brandy sales were at a high, this accounted for 901,000 litres of alcohol. The volume of imported brandy also decreased while exports fell to 8,000 litres.

Imports

According to the ABS, the volume of Australian wine imports increased by 40.7% in the past year to 34.2ML in 2006-07 (See Table) and the value increased by 45.3% to A$307 million. Imports accounted for 7.1% of all domestic sales in 2006-07.

Sparkling wine accounted for 20.4% of all imports and imported sparkling wine accounted for 14.1% of all sparkling wine consumed in Australia. The average price per litre of imported table wine increased by 3.3% from the previous year to A$8.96.

The volume of imported brandy decreased for the fifth consecutive year to 447,000 litres.

New Zealand has consolidated at the top of the list in terms of imported wines coming into Australia (See Table). Australia now imports 18.1ML of New Zealand wine at a value of $155.9m and an average price per litre of $8.59. New Zealand imports showed volume growth of 53.1% and value growth of 58.7%. New Zealand wines represent more than half of all wines imported into Australia by volume and value.

Italy and France are close competitors when it comes to second place on the list. Italy pipped France on volume with 5.5ML at a value of $32m and an average price per litre of $5.79; but France easily won the value stakes with 5.3ML of sales at an average price per litre of $18.14, and a total value of $97m. French wines hold 31.6% of the total value of imported wine sales in the Australian domestic market.

Germany moved up from seventh position on the list of importers in 2006 to fifth place in 2007. Germany increased its volume of sales into the Australian domestic market by 157.4% to 0.9ML and the value by 77.6% to $3.3m. German wines comprise 2.6% of the volume of imported wines.

The volume of Portuguese wine imports dropped by 43.6% in volume and 14.3% in value.