Australian Wine Industry Overview
Australian Domestic Wine Sales
Domestic wine sales
Total Australian domestic sales - including imported wines - grew by 4.7% during calendar year 2002 to a record high of 414.5 ML.
Domestic sales of Australian-produced wine increased by 4.0% in 2002, also to a record level of 397.3 ML (see table). Domestic sales have shown slow, but steady, growth since 1990-91 when wine sales dipped below 300 ML. Table wines comprised 85.4% of all domestic sales of Australian wine in 2002. Consumers continued to show preference for white table wines which accounted for 58.9% of all domestic table wine sales, down significantly from 1986-87 when white wine comprised almost 81.7% of table wine sales. Total sales of white table wines increased by only 0.3% from 2001, while red wine sales continued to show extraordinary growth and increased by 10.3% since 2001 (Figure 4). Sparkling wine sales increased by 9.2% while fortifieds dropped by 2.9% and carbonated by 11.7%.
Wine packaged in soft pack containers made up 53.5% of all domestic table wine sales in 2002 (see table). Wine packaged in glass bottles (less than two litres) increased by 7.7% in 2002 and are continuing to gain greater market share over the soft packs.
Sales of red wine in bottles are now nearly equal to that of white wine in bottles (49.6% to 50.4%). Red wine sold in bottles increased by 8.9% while white wine in bottles increased by 6.5%. About 66% of all soft packs sold contain white wine although sales of white wine in soft packs dropped by 2.1%.
Per capita consumption of wine in Australia has remained steady in the past three years. The ABS estimates the per capita consumption to be 20.4 litres in 2001-02. During the mid-1990s, consumption grew considerably from 17.8 litres in 1990-91.
IMPORTS
The volume of Australian wine imports increased by 24.9% in the past year to 17.2 ML in 2002 (see table) and the value increased by 27.5% to A$134.7 million. Imports accounted for 4.1% of all domestic sales in 2002, up from 3.5% in 2001. Sparkling wine accounted for 22.1% of all imports and imported sparkling wine accounted for 10.7% of all sparkling wine consumed in Australia. The average price per litre increased from A$7.67 in 2001 to A$7.83 in 2002.
According to ABS data for fiscal year 2001-02, Italy remains the leading source of imports by volume, with 34.4% of the market (see table). France held 37.6% of the market by value and has the most highly valued wine at $15.98 per litre. New Zealand surpassed France and became the second largest importer to Australia in fiscal year 2001-02.
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