1329.0.55.003 - Australian Grape Crush & Wine Production, 2008-09  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/10/2009   
   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

NOTES


THIS ISSUE

This issue contains the release of grape crush, beverage wine production and inventories of wine data for 2008-09.

If you have any comments about this product please contact Paul Sutcliffe by phone on: (08) 8237 7302 or alternatively email: p.sutcliffe@abs.gov.au.


ROUNDING

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


GRAPES CRUSHED AND BEVERAGE WINE PRODUCTION

There were 1.73 million tonnes of grapes crushed in 2008-09, a decrease of 99 thousand tonnes (-5.4%) from last year.

There were 335 wine making businesses which crushed more than 50 tonnes of grapes this year. There were 172 winemakers that each crushed from 50 to 400 tonnes of grapes, producing a combined crush of 32 thousand tonnes. Of these smaller businesses, the 99 smallest winemakers accounted for only 0.6% of all grapes crushed and averaged 114 tonnes each. The 163 winemaking businesses that each crushed more than 400 tonnes of grapes crushed a total of 1.7 million tonnes (98.2% of the national total) of grapes. There were 13 winemakers that crushed more than 20,000 tonnes each, accounting for a total of 1.3 million tonnes of grapes or 73.2% of the total crush.

There were an estimated 1,183 million litres of beverage wine produced by winemakers that crushed more than 50 tonnes of grapes. This beverage wine production figure was 75 million litres (-5.9%) less than the total for 2007-08.

Red/rosé table wine made up 630 million litres (53.2%) of the estimated beverage wine produced in 2008-09. This was a decrease of 46 million litres (-6.8%) on the red/rosé table wine produced in the previous year. White table wine accounted for 542 million litres, a decrease of 26 million litres (-4.5%) on 2007-08.

TABLE 1:   Winemakers, Size of production - 2008-09
Grapes Crushed
Table Wine
Winemakers
Red
White
Total
Red
White
Total beverage wine produced
Size (tonnes crushed)
Number
tonnes
tonnes
tonnes
' 000 L
' 000 L
' 000 L
50 - 99
41
1 666
1 374
3 040
847
833
1 719
100 - 149
35
2 646
1 636
4 281
1 153
766
1 986
150 - 199
23
2 513
1 402
3 915
888
494
1 410
200 - 400
73
13 350
7 344
20 694
3 762
2 356
6 275
401 - 1,000
69
26 894
19 230
46 124
16 373
11 252
27 839
1,001 - 3,000
41
33 989
33 080
67 069
22 372
21 311
43 983
3,001 - 5,000
16
36 467
25 277
61 745
25 857
16 102
42 169
5,001 - 10,000
12
51 024
38 412
89 436
35 509
21 528
57 986
10,001 - 20,000
12
84 012
84 427
168 439
63 305
52 963
117 546
20,001 or more
13
660 656
607 108
1 267 764
459 663
414 133
881 710
Total
335
913 216
819 290
1 732 506
629 728
541 736
1 182 624


For those crushing more than 400 tonnes, there was a decrease of four million litres (-26.6%) for the production of fortified beverage wine and a decrease of 61 million litres (-5.0%) of unfortified beverage wine on 2007-08 figures. The production of distillation wine decreased by 1 million litres (-12.6%) in 2008-09.

TABLE 2:   Wine Production(a)
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
Type
'000 L
'000 L
'000 L
'000 L
' 000 L
Beverage wine
Fortified(b)
20 275
12 729
8 013
14 806
10 867
Unfortified
1 400 074
1 397 754
946 996
1 221 726
1 160 365
Total
1 420 348
1 410 483
955 009
1 236 532
1 171 233
Distillation wine(c)
13 479
19 305
6 962
8 245
7 208
Gross total wine
1 433 827
1 429 788
961 972
1 244 776
1 178 441
Net total wine(d)
1 430 129
1 426 346
960 662
1 243 055
1 176 347
(a) Production by winemakers who crush more than 400 tonnes of grapes annually
(b) Relates only to production from unfortified wine of the same vintage
(c) For manufacturing brandy and grape spirit. Includes wine obtained from marc
(d) Excludes grape spirit used for fortifying (assumes 95.6% alcohol by volume)



WINE INVENTORIES

Inventories of Australian beverage wine held by winemakers (who crush more than 400 tonnes) increased this year to 1.92 billion litres at 30 June 2009. This was a 2.4% increase on last years end of financial year figure. Table wine inventories rose 2.3% to 1.7 billion litres as at 30 June 2009.

White table wine accounted for 680 million litres or 35.4% of the stock of total beverage wine stored by winemakers this year. Red/rosé table wine stocks of one billion litres still represented 54.2% of the beverage wine stock held by winemakers.

TABLE 3: Inventories of Australian Wine and Grape Juice Held by Winemakers(a)
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Inventories at 30 June
' 000 L
' 000 L
' 000 L
' 000 L
' 000 L
Beverage wine
Fortified wine
75 427
75 017
75 011
68 713
64 777
Sparkling wine
87 561
85 081
148 458
106 201
111 779
Carbonated
638
3 558
6 156
6 766
10 192
Flavoured (other wine products)(b)
4 909
8 950
5 214
11 505
13 765
Table Wine(c)
White
705 544
768 921
592 920
r662 817
680 396
Red and rosé
1 189 107
1 165 373
955 853
r1 021 873
1 042 430
Total
1 894 650
1 934 295
1 548 773
r1 684 690
1 722 826
Total Beverage wine
2 063 185
2 106 900
1 783 613
r1 877 876
1 923 338
Distillation wine
1 230
4 456
993
883
2 077
Unfermented grape juice
24 030
29 512
49 732
64 991
63 642
Concentrated must (single strength)
9 347
15 179
8 488
3 668
13 119
r revised
(a) Inventories from winemakers who crush more than 400 tonnes of grapes annually
(b) Includes wine cocktails, marsala, aperitif and tonic wines, de-alcoholised wine, low and reduced alcohol wine and Vermouth
(c) Spritzig table wines are included with table wine