New Zealand Wine; New Zealand Exports

30 April 2009

Source: NZ Herald

The wine industry contributes more than $1.5 billion to New Zealand’s GDP and supports 16,500 full-time jobs.

These are some of the facts and figures in a new report written for New Zealand Winegrowers by economic consultancy NZIER.

Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith said the wine industry had been transformed in the past two decades, and the body had commissioned the study to better understand future challenges and opportunities.

The NZIER report says the number of wineries in New Zealand grew from fewer than 250 in 1996 to 600 last year.

It says our wine exports have grown at an average of 24 per cent each year for the past 20 years, compared with 5.9 per cent growth for all export goods.

New Zealand’s wine exports are worth $900 million a year, our 12th largest export item.

The industry plays a pivotal role in some of New Zealand’s regions such as Marlborough, where it accounts for 20 per cent of the local economy and supports 4000 jobs.

Marlborough contains half the country’s grape growers and produces three-quarters of our wine exports.

In Hawkes Bay, wine accounts for 2 per cent of the region’s GDP and supports 1600 jobs. Hawkes Bay produces 12 per cent of the nation’s wine exports.

It is also estimated that the industry generates 225,000 wine-related tourist visits to this country each year.

NZIER says the economic downturn may create two effects among consumers of New Zealand wine.

While some may turn to cheaper, low-quality wine from other markets, others may switch away from expensive wines such as French champagne to New Zealand methode champenoise, for example.

New Zealand Wine; New Zealand Exports

New Zealand Wine; New Zealand Exports

28 April 2009

Source: Stuff.co.nz

The world’s appetite for New Zealand wine is growing as export sales increase, but wineries will still find it challenging to sell their wine this year, warns New Zealand Winegrowers.

Wine exports by volume were up 23 per cent for the year to the end of March, with 104.7 million litres of Kiwi wine being sent overseas.

Wine exports to Australia had strong growth up 52 per cent to 33.8 million litres, exports to the United Kingdom were up 17 per cent to 35.3 million litres and the United States up 8 per cent to 20.2 million litres.

The dollar value of wine exports was up 21 per cent to $930 million for the 12 months ended February 28.

NZ Winegrowers was expecting to achieve $1 billion worth of exports this year.

NZ Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said while export sales were growing he did not want to understate how tough the market was.

Wineries were coming under increased pressure to drop their prices and buyers were hesitant to commit to orders because of the added uncertainty in the global economy, Gregan said.

Last year was a record harvest in New Zealand and many wineries were still trying to sell last year’s stock.

There had been talk wineries would be forced to dump wine, but Gregan said he had not heard of that happening.

Wine Marlborough chairman Blair Gibbs said one mechanism to sell excess wine was to drop the price, but the method was not sensible when it came to building a brand. Some wineries were launching new labels and selling them cheaper to protect the value of other labels, he said.

This year’s harvest would be slightly down on last year’s as the industry had focused on producing lower yields to preserve the value of their wine.

NZ Winegrowers predicted 275,000 tonnes of grapes would be picked, compared with last year’s record 285,000.

Gregan said New Zealand’s wine was increasing in popularity because it was world-class, competitively priced and the types of wine produced were suited to the modern lifestyle.

Gibbs said the key to the success of New Zealand’s wine industry was its high quality.

“We can’t compete against low cost producing countries.”

New Zealand Wine; New Zealand Exports