EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCED WINE


ANNUAL EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCED WINE

The graph below shows that there continues to be strong growth in the quantity of exports of Australian produced wine. Apart from a fall in 1994-95, the 1990s saw a steady increase in Australian wine exported. The 1992-93 period saw Australia export more than 100 million litres for the first time. Six years later, in the 1998-99 period, wine exports exceeded 200 million litres of wine for the first time. From this period wine exports grew rapidly, with more than 300 million litres of wine sold to overseas markets during 2000-01, reaching a total export volume of 787.0 million litres in 2006-07. The volume of Australian made wine exported in 2006-07 was 9.0% more than the volume in 2005-06. Further, this export volume for 2006-07 was more than double the volume in 2000-01 and ten times the amount exported in 1991-92.

EXPORTS OF WHITE AND RED/ROSÉ TABLE WINE

In original terms, 41.7 million litres of Australian produced wine were exported in January 2008, a decrease of 32.5% on December 2007 and a fall of 18.8% on January 2007. In January 2008, 13.9 million litres of Australian produced white table wine were exported, a decrease of 29.8% on last month and a fall of 19.8% on January 2007. Australian producers exported 26.9 million litres of red and rosé table wine in January 2008, a decrease of 33.3% from last month and an 18.5% decrease on January 2007.

UNIT VALUE OF WINE EXPORTS

In original terms, the value of the wine exported this month (41.7 million litres) was $149.7m, a decrease of 38.5% in value from December 2007. The average value of Australian wine exported in January 2008 was $3.59 per litre, down from $3.94 per litre last month and up from $3.51 per litre in January 2007.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ABS AND AWBC WINE EXPORT FIGURES

The value of wine exports reported in this publication is derived by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from customs export records and the ABS converts the value on the day of shipment, at the daily conversion rate (see paragraph 10 of the Explanatory Notes for more detail). The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation (AWBC) also report the value of exports and the exporter makes the conversion when submitting wine for export approval. With the AWBC method, it is expected that some of the conversions will occur at hedged rates. This does not occur with the ABS method. For January, the value reported by the ABS was $149.7m, while the AWBC value was $153.7m. When the Australian exchange rate is moving significantly the alternative methods will result in diverging valuations.