Australian wine exports down – now focusing on new markets in China and India
Last week the International Organization of Vine and Wine reported that after years of non-stop growth, global wine consumption started to retreat last year. It is not a big drop in percentage terms, the organisation says its initial estimates for 2008 show consumption down 0.8 percent, at 243 million hectoliters compared to 2007’s 245 million hectoliters. There are some shifts happening with the US market for the first time overtaking Italians in terms of wine consumption.
Looking into what Australian wine exports were doing, the news aren’t good at all: Australian wine exports by volume went back by more than 5% to 7.09hl and it gets even worse when you look at the value of these wine exports: Australian winemakers achieved revenues of 2.43bn Australian Dollars, representing a decrease of 16% in that year. Bad news for those wineries in export!
Australian wineries adapt
The consumption dropped most significantly in Europe, where the big wine drinking nations France, Germany and Italy all slowed, mainly due to a changed economic climate. Our Australian Wine producers are now pinning their hopes for growth during the financial crisis on Asia. China is the only country that only recently entered the ranks of the world’s top ten wine drinking countries. And India is following close behind with a growing number of wealthy, international Indians discovering the taste of Australian wine in Mumbai’s and Delhi’s leading restaurants.
The times are changing, you just have to be able to adapt.
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Der weltweite Weinkonsum ist im vergangenen Jahr um 0,8% zurueck gegangen. Im wesentlichen wird das auf den Einbruch der Nachfrage in Frankreich, Italien und Deutschland zurueck gefuehrt, hier sitzen die Weintrinker, die viel und gerne internationale Weine trinken. Australian selbst hatte einen Rueckgang zu verzeichnen, nach Wert gemessen ist dieser Rueckgang mit ca. 16% dramatisch.
Ich werde mich daher in einem naechsten Beitrag der Frage widmen, was denn mit dem ‘uebrig gebliebenen’ Wein hier Down Under so geschehen ist.
Ihr Michael Brecht
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[...] Today’s guest article was written by Kellie Rose, she is Marketing Manager at Longfellows Group a wine export management company based in Melbourne Victoria. Her report tells us about the dos and don’ts when exporting to China, the country only recently joined the ranks of Top Ten wine drinking countries. [...]