The Australian wine sector recorded its third consecutive increase in crush and the average purchase price of wine grapes this year, according to the National Vintage Report 2017 released today by Australian Vignerons, Wine Australia and the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.
In a continuing trend of positive increases for the Australian grape and wine sector, the national crush is estimated to be 1.93 million tonnes – an increase of 5 per cent from the 2016 vintage – and the national average purchase price increased by 7 per cent $565 per tonne – the highest since 2008.
“The increases reflect excellent seasonal conditions in many regions as well as the growing demand for Australian wine, both in export and domestic markets,” said Wine Australia Chief Executive Officer Andreas Clark.
“Pleasingly, the figures from the National Vintage Report indicate that the supply and demand for Australian wine is in balance. An additional 93,000 tonnes were crushed this year, which produces approximately an additional 65 million litres of wine. This is in line with increased demand for Australian wine: in 2016–17, exports increased by 50 million litres, and domestic sales increased by 12 million litres in 2015–16, a total of 62 million litres.”
In the 2017 vintage, most regions recorded an increase in tonnes crushed, with the growth in the national crush coming relatively equally from the cool/temperate and warmer inland wine regions of Australia.
The crush from cool/temperate regions increased by 9 per cent to 0.61 million tonnes and accounted for 31 per cent of the national tonnes. In warmer inland regions (Riverina, Murray Darling–Swan Hill and Riverland) the crush increased by 3 per cent to 1.32 million tonnes, making up 69 per cent share of the national crush.
Red winegrape varieties increased their share of the crush to 55 per cent, compared with 52 per cent in 2016. Overall, red winegrape varieties increased by 12 per cent and offset a slight decline of 2 per cent in the white variety crush.
More than 35,000 transactions were collected for vintage analysis. They revealed that the average purchase price increased 7 per cent from last year’s vintage to $565 per tonne – above the average price across the previous five years of $477 per tonne.
The average purchase price of red winegrapes increased by 6 per cent from $651 per tonne to $691 per tonne, and the average price of white winegrapes also increased by 6 per cent from $398 to $420 per tonne.
The total estimated value of the Australian winegrape crush from the 2017 vintage is $1.22 billion, an incease of 13 per cent from $1.08 billion in 2016.
