Bulk wine export figures up
The amount of bulk wine exported by New Zealand wineries increased to about 35 per cent of all exports last year, but the amount of bulk wine flowing out of the country appears to be slowing, New Zealand Winegrowers says.
Kiwi wineries exported 168.1 million litres last year, earning $1.089 billion, NZ Winegrowers export figures show.
That was 7 per cent more wine than 2010. However, the earnings rose only 4 per cent which meant the average per litre price for Kiwi wine fell about 20 cents to $6.24. In 2006, the average price was $9.44.
New Zealand wineries seem to be getting less money for more exports, the antithesis of the industry body's plan to hoist the wine industry out of the problems of recent years.
However, NZ Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said the value of packaged (already bottled) exports was holding up well and the fall in the average per litre price of NZ wine was down to the increase in bulk wine sales.
Although some of the increase was wineries bottling overseas to save money, most of it was going to overseas customers to be sold under retailer brands.
Gregan said about 35 per cent of all Kiwi wine exports in the year to December was bulk wine, up from 31 per cent in 2010.
The larger share of bulk wine was pushing the average price of exported wine down. Bottled exports on their own, though, had last year posted a small increase in the average per litre price. Last year, the average price for a litre of bottled exports was $8.71; it had fallen about 90 cents since 2008.
He had no way of predicting what would happen to the percentage of bulk wine in the future, but the trend appeared to show bulk wine growth slowing, he said.
About half of all bulk wine leaving New Zealand goes to Britain and it soaks up 34 per cent of all Kiwi wine exports, making it the largest export market by volume.
Ten per cent more wine went to Britain last year compared with 2010, yet Kiwi wineries collectively received $6.2 million less for the year's consignments. The average per litre value of Kiwi wine exported to Britain was $5.08.
Australia, which takes about a quarter of Kiwi bulk wine, posted a slight average per litre price rise to $7.15. Kiwi wineries exported 8.2m litres less to Australia than they did to Britain last year, but they made $61.4m more.
Gregan said the swollen kiwi dollar had a large impact on the value of wine exports and had cost exporters about $80m between 2007 and 2011, he said.
That equated to $250 a tonne of grapes produced, which was massive when growers received on average $1200 a tonne, he said.
It has been reported that unfavourable weather in the past couple of years is likely to mean a reduced harvest this year. The results of the annual pre-vintage survey will shed more light on that by the end of the month, he said.