January 29, 2007

Embargoed 11:30am (AEDT)

08/2007

The 2005-06 year was a good one for the wine industry, with more Australian wine being consumed locally and overseas, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Domestic wine sales recorded a total volume of 431 million litres consumed by Australians last financial year, up from the 430 million litres in the previous year.

Exports of Australian produced wine reached 722 million litres, up 8% on the previous year. The value of these exports increased to $2.8 billion, a rise of 2%. However, the average price per litre dropped 6% from $4.05 in 2004-05 to $3.82 in 2005-06.

More than one-third (36%) of Australian wine exports were shipped to the United Kingdom, which imported 262 million litres (valued at $946m). The next two main export markets were the United States of America which imported close to 205 million litres (valued at $864m) and Canada, which imported 49 million litres of wine (valued at $246m).

Other wine industry highlights for 2005-06 include:

• Nationally, red/rose wine production rose 2% and made up 55% of the beverage wine produced. White wine production fell 3% to 622 million litres.
• There were 1.9 million tonnes of grapes crushed resulting in 1.4 billion litres of wine produced nationwide. This is slightly down on the previous year.
• There were 220 wineries that each crushed more than 400 tonnes of grapes and produced 1.4 billion litres of beverage wine between them. Another 215 smaller wineries crushed under 400 tonnes each to produce a total of 24 million litres.
• Table wine inventories continued to grow, with winemakers now holding in excess of 2.1 billion litres.
• More grape vines are being cultivated, up from last year's previous record to 168,791 hectares in 2006.
• Vineyards used on average 3.7 megalitres of irrigated water per hectare (down 3% on last year).

More details are in Australian Wine and Grape Industry, 2006 (cat. no. 1329.0).