Whilst the Chinese market accounts for nearly 40 percent by value of Australian wine exports, this figure only represents approximately 10% by volume of Australia’s average wine production.

Despite the current concerns producers and exporters have over Chinese trade, commercial, unpackaged wine export prices remain 7% above where they were in October 2019, and bottled commercial exports are only down 1%.

This is despite a 33% reduction in the volume of exports to China from that of October 2019.

“Sensibly the majority of commercial winemakers in Australia have maintained key relationships with other export markets and are not largely dependent on China,” said Jim Caddy, chair of the Inland Wine Regions Alliance (IWRA).

“Over the past twelve months major export destinations and domestic consumption have seen increases in commercial wine sales, which have increased demand for Australian wine.”

Out of an average of 1,230 Million Litres produced, the top four countries consuming Australian wine were Australia at 464 Million Litres (43%), the United Kingdom at 257 Million Litres (24%), the US at 130 Million Litres (12.7%) and China at 123 Million Litres (11.5%) during the past year.

“Below average winegrape crops of the last two years and sales volumes exceeding production levels indicate that current stock would be well below the ten-year average,” said Caddy.

“Good sales volumes over the past 12 months by our commercial industry producers have left us in a much stronger position than during the last time we had problems.”

Caddy says that, overall, the Australian commercial wine sector is in a good position to weather this disruption and should not bow to pressure from retailers to discount prices.

Consumers of Australian wine therefore should not expect lower prices for Australian wine as the quality of our product continues to be outstanding.

*All figures are sourced from Wine Australia

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