The price of Australian wine fell for the fifth year last financial year, even though a record 738 million litres were exported, reports The Advertiser.

The average price per litre slumped 9% to A$3.80 compared with A$4.16 the previous year, the newspaper said quoting the Wine Export Approval Report. Global competition and tough trading conditions continued to eat into the price.

The main market for Australian wine continued to be Britain, following by the US, Canada, China and Sweden.

Meanwhile, Australian wine drinkers are having a party at the expense of a nationwide surplus that has driven the retail prices of some bottled varieties down by as much as 70%.

Bruce Tyrrell, owner of Tyrrell's Wines in the Hunter Valley, said that although wine sales had increased, production was still years ahead of demand.

"Day-to-day drinking wines that were A$14 and A$15 three years ago are selling for A$10 and A$11," he said.

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