NZ wine exports grow 9.5%, bottled-wine price holds steady

New Zealand wine continues to find favour in overseas markets, with export volumes up 9.5% to 131 million litres in the 10 months to October last year.

However, the proportion of bulk wine exports was higher than a year ago, Rabobank's wine quarterly shows.

Bulk shipments grew to almost half of all shipments in the month of September but were expected to moderate as surplus inventories began to clear through the busy pre-Christmas export period.

Despite the high currency, the average bottled-wine export price over the 10 months held up at roughly $NZ8.70.

The outlook for the 2012 harvest was mixed, as an unusually cool spring and summer appeared to have affected flowering and delayed harvest in Marlborough, while many other regions have also had unseasonal weather patterns.

Global wine exports continued to grow, with South Africa and Australia still the major exceptions as the strength of their domestic currencies dampened demand.

In Australia, reduced supply and the high Australian dollar continued to pressure export volumes, which, in the 10 months through October, fell 10.9% on the previous year, to 655.3 million litres. Many exporters had begun to yield to margin pressure and were facing the challenge of taking their prices higher, in increasingly price-sensitive global markets.

Improved seasonal conditions and ample sub-soil moisture and irrigation water supplies across southeast Australia were generally conducive to increased marketable production this year.

What remained to be seen was the degree to which yields had been affected by the extreme disease pressure experienced by many vineyards in 2011.