Imports

• Wine and brandy imports from selected countries

Wine imports into Australia increased in volume for the financial year ending 2019, up by 4% to 100.2ML (Table 13). The import value also experienced an increase of 5%, or $850 million. The average value per litre held steady with a slight increase of 1% from $8.41 to $8.49 per litre (Table 14).

France has overtaken New Zealand as the leading source of Australia’s wine imports, with a 10% increase in the past year to a total of $351 million, capturing 40% of the value of all imported wine (Table 14). New Zealand is now the second largest supplier of imported wine into in Australia, with an increase of 2%, from $331 million in 2018 to $340 million in 2019 (Table 14).

Other notable increases were wines imported from USA which grew by 21% to reach a value of $7 million, while imports from Portugal rose by 27% to the value of $6 million. The value of imported wine from Italy also increased considerably, by 16%, to a total value of $98 million. Spain’s imports held at $19 million in sales to Australian consumers in 2019. For the second consecutive year, there was a negligible 1% decrease in imports from Germany, indicating a value decline of $6 million. The total value of imported Argentinean wines also decreased, by 10% to $6 million. In 2019, imported bulk sparkling wine experienced another substantial increase, up 24%. A similar increase was observed for imported red bottled wine, up 7% from the previous year (Table 13).

Table 13. Wine imports by type (‘000 litres) by year

Source: ABS imports data from Global Trade Atlas analysis by Wine Australia