| In
the year ending June 31, 2007, the volume of New Zealand
wine sold overseas climbed 34 per cent from 57 million
litres to 76 million litres wine sold in 95 countries.
The value of exports to Australia grew 47 per cent to
$180 million, United Kingdom exports grew 36 per cent
to $227 million, and US sales rose 27 per cent to $176
million.
This has ben done despite the soaring of NZ dollar.
"Companies have attempted to lift their sales prices
- and it has not affected sales to any significant extent."
'The secret to the industry's success was that winegrowers
had continued to lift their price in an attempt to cash
in on the rapidly growing premium segment of the global
wine market,' says Phillip Gregan, CEO of the New Zealand
Grape Growers Association.
He pointed to the improvements in the UK market, where
New Zealand now ranked among the top five off-premises
suppliers of wines above £5 - and Australia, where
Oyster Bay this year became the top-selling white by
value.
Although domestic sales of New Zealand wine exceeded
$500 million for the first time, volume grew just by
just 1 million litres to 51 million litres.
"A lot of our wineries have been experiencing
shortages with some product in the past year and have
a tendency when that's occurring to divert product to
the export market."
Gregan said local consumers were spending on average
the same amount on New Zealand wine, but heavy discounting
at supermarkets over the past year meant they were getting
wines cheaper.
Although the 2007 grape harvest - at 205,000 tonnes
- was a record for the industry, shortages of key export
varietals such as sauvignon blanc and pinot noir due
to cold weather meant the industry would be hard pressed
to repeat such volume and value growth next year, Gregan
said.
Australia, as reported earlier in delWine had a record
$3 Billion worth of exports with 800 million litres
exported.
Source : http://www.nzherald.co.nz
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