According to the Nielsen Liquor Group executive director Michael Walton, the report shows that the new group of wine drinkers differed from the traditional group of over 65, and comprises mainly urban professionals earning more than A$100,000 (NZ$129,000) a year.
The NZ industry has reached $1 billion in exports a year earlier than forecasted and this was also attributed to unexpected surge in the Australian market.
Sauvignon Blanc is still the strongest seller, and is a strong favourite of the younger people who are the key target and are not loyal to any particular brand. The evidence suggests that Pinot Grigio appealed to the same profile of customers and was one of New Zealand's great hopes for increasing the variety of wine types selling.
The oversupply issue created by two continuous bumper harvests has seen the New Zealaand winemakers look into new markets and new customers. This resulted in 42.3% increase over the financial year 2009, while sales value has doubled over the last three years. Kiwi wines now represent 8% of the total wine sold through the off-premise market in Australia.
The report found that a core group of young Aussies who are relatively new to the wine category were driving the increase. These buyers are also more prone to experiment and taste new and alternate varieties, but this also means they are not necessarily loyal to any particular brand.
NZ dollar slide helps
One of the significant factors in the surge in import has been the continued devaluation of the New Zealand dollar against the Aussie pound making the difference between the two countries' official cash rates (OCRs) record its widest gap in nearly 20 years last week The kiwi dollar is trading at 77.54Ac against the Australian dollar which has climbed against 13 of its 16 major counterparts over the past month. The Australian dollar is trading at 0.6634 euro, near its strongest since 1997 and at 60.122 pence, near its highest level since 1985 against the pound. |