| Australian wine exports last year rose to a record 768 million litres ending January, but prices continued to slide as importers opted for cheap bulk red rather than premium bottled wine.
The volume of wine exported was up 9 per cent over the 12-month period, but the value of exports rose only 2 per cent to $2.85 billion.
The average price of exported wine fell 7 per cent to $3.71 per litre, led by a 14 per cent decline in the price of bulk wine, which sold for an average of just $1.04 per litre.
Bulk wine is typically sold in massive containers or bladders and then bottled locally by the importer in order to save shipping costs.
A surplus of up to a billion litres of wine following three massive grape harvests in Australia has left many winemakers with no option but to sell their production at fire-sale prices, but analysts expect the impact of the drought will lead to a rebalancing of supply and demand in two years or even less.
Bulk wine shipments grew 39 per cent to 219 million litres. Bulk shipments account for 28 per cent of Australia 's wine exports by volume but just 8 per cent by value.
China was the fastest growing export market, buying 24 million litres of Australian wine compared with just 4.5 million litres in the same period a year earlier. More than 80 per cent of the wine sold to China was bulk product, but bottled wine also more than doubled to 5 million litres.
Britain and the US remained the biggest export markets for Australian wine, with sales to Britain up 3 per cent to 269 million litres, which changed hands for $943 million, just 1 per cent above the previous year.
Volume to the US grew 6 per cent to a record 221 million litres, while value declined marginally to $927 million.
Sales of wine selling for less than $2.50 a litre grew fastest, but premium producers will be heartened by news of 13 per cent growth in sales of wine fetching $10 or more per litre.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au
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