Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said, ‘Last year, Australia’s most premium wines took center stage. Our highest priced wines ($10 or more per liter FOB) achieved record value in 2016, up an impressive 19 per cent to $574 million. This increase was driven by demand across all of our major export markets but particularly in the Northeast Asia region.
Australian wine export value grew by 7 per cent to $2.22 billion in 2016 and average value grew by 6 per cent to $2.96 per liter free-on-board (FOB), the highest average value since 2009, according to the Wine Australia Export Report December 2016.
This value growth was driven by bottled exports, particularly those at higher price points. Bottled exports grew by 10 per cent to $1.8 billion. The average value of bottled exports hit a calendar year record, up by 5 per cent to $5.48 per liter FOB.
‘In another promising sign that we’re starting to see commercial benefits from an improved perception and increasing demand for our finest wines, the majority of Australian wine exporters (70 per cent) saw value growth in 2016.
‘We are maintaining the momentum early in the year with some of our biggest annual events where we partner with many Australian wineries and exporters, including the Australia Day Tasting series in the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland, trade tastings in the United States (US) and Canada, master classes across China, a significant Australian wine presence at ProWein in March and our major partnership with Tourism Australia for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, taking place in Melbourne in April.’
In 2016, bulk wine exports declined by 2 per cent to $400 million, soft-pack exports fell by 5 per cent to $14 million and exports in alternative packaging such as PETs decreased by 11 per cent to $4 million.
Growth in the premium price segments (Table 1) added more than $93 million in value in 2016.
Exports priced $10 and more per litre FOB were up in all of Australia’s top five markets except Hong Kong – mainland China by 47 per cent, the US by 23 per cent, the UK by 25 per cent and Canada by 9 per cent. Hong Kong was down by 12 per cent.
| Table 1: Value and growth rate of exports by price segment | |||
| Price segment (A$/litre FOB) | Value 2016 | Added value | Growth rate |
| <$2.50 | $434,592,613 | $1,067,627 | 0.2% |
| $2.50–4.99 | $786,733,137 | $25,623,781 | 3% |
| $5–7.49 | $283,122,297 | $29,478,997 | 12% |
| $7.50–9.99 | $142,266,154 | ($713,635) | -0.5% |
| $10–14.99 | $169,561,573 | $19,835,238 | 13% |
| $15–19.99 | $86,632,600 | $12,627,871 | 17% |
| $20–29.99 | $82,522,745 | $18,280,809 | 28% |
| $30–49.99 | $61,653,333 | $26,934,339 | 78% |
| $50–99.99 | $128,830,339 | $11,523,019 | 10% |
| $100–199.99 | $12,441,492 | $2,839,938 | 30% |
| $200+ | $32,067,872 | $1,390,005 | 5% |
| Total | $2,220,424,156 | $148,887,989 | 7% |
