EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCED WINE


ANNUAL EXPORTS OF AUSTRALIAN PRODUCED WINE

The graph below shows a fall from last year in the quantity of exports of Australian produced wine. In 2007-08 wine exports totalled 715 million litres, a fall of 9.2% from the 787 million litres exported in 2006-07. Further, the volume of Australian made wine exported in 2007-08 was 1.0% lower than the volume in 2005-06 (722 million litres). 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. More than 300 million litres of wine were sold to overseas markets during 2000-01, reaching the high of 787 million litres in 2006-07.

EXPORTS OF WHITE AND RED/ROSÉ TABLE WINE

In original terms, 67.4 million litres of Australian produced wine were exported in December 2008, an increase of 34.7% on November 2008 and of 9.1% on December 2007. In December 2008, 27.8 million litres of Australian produced white table wine were exported, an increase of 47.7% from last month and an increase of 40.8% on December 2007. Australian producers exported 38.0 million litres of red and rosé table wine in December 2008, an increase of 27.8% from last month and a 5.7% decrease on December 2007.

UNIT VALUE OF WINE EXPORTS

In original terms, the value of the wine exported this month (67.4 million litres) was $221.6m, an increase of 18.6% in value from November 2008. The average value of Australian wine exported in December 2008 was $3.29 per litre, down from $3.73 per litre last month and down from $3.94 per litre in December 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 December, the value reported by the ABS was $221.6m, while the AWBC value was $214.5m. When the Australian exchange rate is moving significantly the alternative methods will result in diverging valuations.