Australian Export Success
The Australian wine industry recently celebrated a milestone - $2 billion in annual export sales for 2001-2002, reinforcing its position as one of the nation's leading income earners.
The achievement comes in just under three years after the industry's $1 billion export target was achieved in July 1999 and represents a new record in both the value and volume of wine sales overseas.
The $2 billion record has summarised a remarkable 20 years in which wine exports have grown from $13 million to $2 billion.
2002 - A year of records:
The value of exports up by 24%
The best performance since 1999-2000
The volume of sales up by 22%
The wine industry has also achieved a record increase on last year of $387
million in value and 78 million litres in volume.
Australia's top five export markets:
United Kingdom - received over 200 million litres of wine.
United States
Canada
New Zealand
Germany
During 2002, Australia reinforced its position as the world's fourth largest wine exporter behind France, Italy and Spain. And the largest wine producer outside of the European Union.
Australian Vintage Harvest 2002
Australia achieved yet another record grape harvest in 2002, with an estimated vintage of 1.65 million tonnes.
This major increase is led by Shiraz and Merlot. An overall increase of 19% (258,000 tonnes) of wine grapes when compared to the 2001 vintage. Shiraz is up by 134,000 tonnes.
Shiraz intake increased by 43% to 445,000 tonnes - equivalent to about 10 million additional cases of finished product. More than a quarter of the total Australian grape production is now Shiraz, reflective of the dramatic shift to Shiraz plantings in 1997, 1998 and 1999 (12,000 hectares).
Red wine grape production increased by 190,000 tonnes (25%) to 963,000 tonnes, representing 58% of the total crop. This is a remarkable turnaround from only 4 years ago when red intake represented only 38% of total intake.
Cabernet Sauvignon yield increased by a modest 4% to 259,000 tonnes. The less dramatic increase reflects its higher prevalence in cooler climates, where yields were poor, and a proportion of fruit in warmer climates that was not processed.
Merlot crop increased dramatically, up by 31% to 105,000 tonnes, representing 6% of the total wine grape harvest.
Specialist white wine grapes, excluding the multipurpose varieties of Sultana, Muscat Gordo Blanco and Waltham Cross, increased by 63,000 tonnes to 558,000 tonnes representing 34% of the total production.
Chardonnay harvest increased by only 3% (7,000 tonnes) to 252,000 tonnes. In 1999, Chardonnay was the largest varietal in the Australian mix. In the three vintages since then, Chardonnay intake has only increased by 41,000 tonnes, compared with Shiraz, which increased by 253,000 tonnes over the same period. The relative scarcity of Chardonnay has prompted a number of companies to write new Chardonnay contracts to provide greater supply surety in the medium term.
Semillon intake was up by 19% or 17,000 tonnes to 105,000 tonnes, and Sauvignon Blanc recorded a 15% increase to 29,000 tonnes.
Riesling also increased, from 27,000 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes. Modest plantings over several years indicates that the variety will continue to grow slowly.
Colombard also contributed to the vintage increase, nearly doubling its intake from 39,000 tonnes in 2001 to 68,000 tonnes in 2002.
Front page and article in Swiat Win (dated August 2002)
Wine Australia 2002 Exhibition
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Swiat Win October 2002 Article
Winestate Article (21 November 2002)
Australian Grape Grower and Wine Maker Article (October 2002)
Warsaw Business Journal Article (September 2002)
