Wine exports up but domestic sales fall
NEW ZEALAND wine export values hit a record high in the last year, with strong growth in the North American market.
But Kiwis have been drinking less local wine, switching to imported wines instead.
New Zealand Winegrowers issued its annual report yesterday, showing wine export values rose 3 per cent to $1.21 billion in the year to June.
Volumes exported were 5 per cent lower due to a smaller grape crop in 2012. This year looks to be better, with a record 345,000 tonnes of grapes harvested so far, about a third ahead on last year’s harvest volumes.
The average export price of packaged wine was unchanged at $8.41 a litre.
Exports to North America have risen. There was 13 per cent more wine sent to the United States last year at a total value of $284 million. Canada imported $78m worth of New Zealand wine, 10 per cent more than in the previous year.
On our home turf, Kiwi customers bought 19 per cent less local wine, with 52 million litres sold in the year to June.
In the same period sales of imported wine shot up by half to 41 million litres.
New Zealand Winegrowers chairman Steve Green said that was an ‘‘entirely predictable’’ consequence of the smaller vintage from local wines last year.
‘‘The small 2012 grape crop meant wine was in short supply and wineries took the opportunity to improve their positioning in the market.
‘‘Winemakers have welcomed the more normal 2013 harvest as the improved supply will facilitate renewed export growth in the year ahead,’’ said Green, warning that growers should make new plantings based only on actual demand rather than optimism.
‘‘Supply discipline remains as essential now as ever before. Provided the wine industry learns from the struggles of the past, we can look to the future with confidence.’’
Glengarry Wines Victoria Park store manager Zane Winskill said it had not noticed an increase in sales of imported wine as it already specialised in that area, so customers seeking wines from overseas often shopped there anyway.
‘‘We already sell a lot of imported wines, we already have a strong percentage of sales in imported wine, so from our point of view it has been business as usual.
‘‘We haven’t seen a massive increase. New Zealand wine is still very much the dominant wine.’’
Foodstuffs, which owns New World, Pak ’n Save and Four Square supermarkets, was unable to comment yesterday on how much imported wine it sold compared with local brands.
In the year to June, exports of New Zealand wine to China rose 6 per cent to $26.9m, Hong Kong was up 11 per cent to $20.5m and Germany rose 25 per cent to $9.5m.