The increase is reportedly due to a combination of an increased producing area and favourable growing conditions in most regions over the summer months. Philip Gregan, New Zealand Winegrowers CEO, says, "the harvest is larger than forecast pre-vintage as a result of the favourable growing season.'
"This reflects the upside of agricultural risk in our industry which in recent years has often worked against us with spring frosts or cool weather during the critical flowering period." He adds.
What he failed to mention is that the increase being substantially due to the crops from new vines, the quality might not be as good as it has been over the last couple of decades. But the increase will help the export sales due to increased availability.
"The increased harvest is a real opportunity to grow sales in new and existing export markets in the year ahead towards our target of $1 billion of exports by 2010. At the same time, the larger harvest will present a challenge to winery sales and marketing efforts to ensure that New Zealand's premium image continues to go from strength to strength," said Gregan.
Marlborough produced 195,000 tonnes of grapes in 2008, up 61% from 121,000 tonnes in 2007. Other regional increases include Central Otago up 177%, Wairarapa up 111%, Waipara up 304%, Canterbury up 304% and Nelson up by 35%.
However, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay regions were down 8% and 18% respectively, due to a combination of frosts and cooler weather at flowering, reports Harpers.
Well reflected in the guarded statement of Gregan, this increase will result in softening of prices for the 2008 vintage next year, especially for the Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough and later for the Pinot Noir from Central Otago, but time will tell. A price reduction will help these two wines become more competitive in India where NZ wines are steadily gaining popularity.
India is not an exception in adapting to these two varietals from New Zealand. They have been constantly gaining popularity across the world, especially in UK and US. In view of the increasing demand, the plantings and prices have been steadily going up and are over 350% more than the harvest a decade ago, resulting in lower average life of the vines.
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