Wine Industry Statistics

Australian Wine Exports

• Table 14. Summary of Australian wine export approvals for the calendar year 2007.
• Table 15. Export approvals by container type.
• Table 16. Australia’s export sales from December 1994 to December 2008
• Table 17. Australia’s largest exporters of branded wine by volume¹
• Table 18. Australia's largest wine exporters of branded wine by value¹

WINE EXPORTS

According to the December 2008 Wine Export Approval Report (WEAR) from the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, 2008 was considered a “tale of two halves” as volatile trading conditions and exchange rate movements affected the export market. In the first half of 2008, the strong Australian dollar placed pressure on Australia's price competitiveness in major markets and while the second half of the year saw a marked fall in the value of the Australian dollar, the global financial credit crisis started to impact in many of Australia's markets placing additional pressure on exports.

The volume of wine exported was 698ML a drop of 11% from 785ML in December 2007. Value of wine exports fell 18% to A$2.46 billion and the average price declined 8% from A$3.83 per litre in December 2007 to $3.53 per litre (Table 14) . Volume declined for the first time since 1995 and value fell for the first time in the 15-year history recorded by the AWBC.

Bottled shipments accounted for just over three-quarters of the decline in the volume of Australian wine exported in 2008 (Table 15) . Bottled shipments fell 12% to 513ML and the bottled share of total exports fell 1% to 73%. Bulk shipments increased by 20ML in the second half of the year after declining by 40ML in the first half. Over the year, bulk shipments declined 10% to 176ML and the bulk share of exports increased marginally to just over a quarter. Soft-pack shipments increased by 1ML in the second half of the year.

White wine exports performed better than reds. Red wine shipments fell by 15% to 424ML and the red share of exports declined 2% to 61%. White wine shipments dropped by 5% to 256ML and the white share of exports increased 3% to 37%.

Despite considerable declines, the United Kingdom remains Australia’s number one export market by volume and value. Volume dropped 10% to 261ML and value dropped 18.2% to $805m. In the United States volume declined 5.6% to 193ML and value declined 26.5% to $674m.

On the back of strong growth in bottled shipments, Asia generally outperformed the more traditional markets of Europe and the USA. The volume of bottled shipments to Asia grew 8% to 38ML while the average value of bottled exports grew 2% to $6.76 per litre.

Exports of Australian-produced brandy fell to 4,000 litres.

The 2009 Wine Industry Directory lists 1,310 producers that export wine, up from 1,165 in 2008 and representing 56% of all wineries.

Two companies, Foster’s Group and Constellation Wines Australia, account for 41% of all exports by volume, while the top 20 exporters account for an estimated 78% (Table 17) . While Foster’s remains the largest exporter of wine, Constellation Wines Australia is narrowing the gap. Casella Wines is also continuing to grow export volumes. According to information supplied to the Directory, the biggest movers in both volume and value growth terms in 2008 were Griffith producer, Warburn Estate; and Victorian producer, Littore Family Wines. Warburn Estate moved from 18th position to 10th on export volumes for 2008; and from 21 in 2007 to 12th in the rankings for export value, according to the Directory. Littore Family Wines was not previously ranked in either export volumes, or value, but now sits at 8th position in terms of export volumes; and 19th position in export values.

For the first time, Cockatoo Ridge (ranking an estimated 9th on export volumes) has been included in the Directory data after the group completed the purchase of Australian Commercial Wines Ltd.

The largest wine exporters by value are ranked in Table 18 .