CHINA'S freeze on Australian wine purchases continues to severely chill our national export performance, but sales to other parts of the world grew in value by five per cent last financial year.
Sales to mainland China have collapsed by about 96pc from $1.1 billion a year in 2020 to just $25 million - a direct result of punishing deposit tariffs imposed by Beijing 20 months ago.
A 10pc slump in sales to Britain and Hong Kong also hurt the industry in 2021-22, as did severe shipping delays and soaring freight charges, inflation-fuelled production costs and the coronavirus pandemic's ongoing disruption to the hospitality market.
In total, wine exports fell 10pc in volume to 625m litres, and were down almost 20pc in value to $2.08b, according to Wine Australia.
However, outside the once lucrative China market, while export volumes shrank about 3pc to 619m litres, sales grew $105m to $2.06b.
That's the highest value for the non-China market in 13 years.
In 2021-22, Australian wine exporters shipped wine to 113 countries, with New Zealand making interesting gains in the market for unpackaged, bulk wine.
Our key growth markets included Singapore, the US, Malaysia, Thailand, India and New Zealand, which has developed a thirst for bulk wine.
The US produced the most heartening results, rising 9pc to be worth $430m and overtaking Britain where sales fell 10pc to be worth $421m.
Significantly more export companies were not selling into the US according to Wine Australia, and their focus is on higher price categories above $10 a litre (freight on board).
In fact, most growth markets were driven by demand in higher value segments, reflecting a trend towards higher price categories in many markets around the globe.
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Red wines dominated, representing 92pc of offshore sales value in these $10-plus Australian export categories.
Wine Australia's market insights manager, Peter Bailey said the trade had seen a downward trend in the commercial/value segment (retailing for less than $US10 a bottle) and growth in premium segments.
Overall, red wine exports, dominated by China until the import barriers were introduced, fell 26pc for the financial year to be worth $1.39m, while white wine grew 7pc to $579m.
White wine's growth destinations included the US, UK and Canada.
At a region level, the most significant market growth came from South East Asia, up 51pc to $314m; North America, up 5pc to $612m, and the Middle East, up 48pc to $20m.
Australia's top five markets by value for the 12 months were the US ($436m); UK ($421m); Canada ($174m); Hong Kong ($170m), and Singapore ($169m).
By volume, the UK still leads, despite a 15pc drop to 227m, followed by the US (139m litres); Canada (53m litres) and NZ and Germany (both 32m litres).
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Andrew Marshall
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
Andrew Marshall is the group agribusiness writer for ACM's state agricultural weeklies and websites. He is a former editor at The Land and has worked in various Rural Press group roles in Canberra, North Richmond (NSW) and Toowoomba (Qld).
