Australian wine is exported to more than 100 markets around the world each year, but three quarters of the value of the wine we send internationally is exported to just five markets.
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the exploration of export markets for Australian wine. It is no secret that the sector is seeking both new and alternative markets for wine, but the distinction between the two can vary greatly.
All markets for wine can be categorised by their levels of ‘maturity’ with regards to how much wine is already consumed, what wine knowledge already exists and what the perceptions around wine (if any) are.
New markets tend to be those where wine is relatively new to consumers. However, there is considerable potential for consumers of alcohol to move from other beverages to wine as economic and other market factors shift.
The challenge for wine businesses is to balance activities in markets where there is already demand for wine – and many competitors – and to test the waters in new markets where there is potential for growth.
Priority markets for Australian wine
Markets of all levels of maturity are important to evaluate as is the continued re-evaluation of existing markets for Australian wine to ensure that collective promotional pushes for are met with the greatest return.
Wine Australia has reviewed markets on a number of factors to determine those with the greatest opportunity for Australian wine. These are the priority markets for Wine Australia’s marketing investments, which are:
- United States of America (particularly the states of California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York)
- Canada (within British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario)
- United Kingdom, and
- within Europe Nordics, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Within the Asian region, Wine Australia will also be working closely with Austrade through the Agribusiness Expansion Initiative (ABEI) to grow opportunities in a number of emerging markets, primarily:
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Indonesia, and
- Japan.
The ABEI initiative is also looking at the trading hubs of Singapore and Malaysia. While they are not priority markets, they have been included due to COVID-19 related lockdowns in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia that have a short-term impact.
So, why these markets?
Together, the markets identified account for wine sales of close to 850 million 9-litre cases valued at $78 billion (see table below).
These markets are also on the rise for exports.
In the 12 months ended March 2021, the combined value of Australian wine exports to the markets increased by 11 per cent to $1.5 billion. Excluding mainland China, exports to the rest of the world increased by 8 per cent to $370 million.
Among the target markets, exports increased at the fastest rate to South Korea (up 71 per cent to $35 million), the United Kingdom (up 33 per cent to $431 million) and Germany (up 19 per cent to $56 million). The United States of America is the biggest by value and exports increased by 4 per cent to $461 million.
Over the months ahead, we will provide in-depth analysis on some of these priority markets via the Market Bulletin.
In the meantime, you can conduct your own analysis into these and other markets via Wine Australia’s Interactive Insights portal. The Export dashboard provides a comprehensive look at Australian wine export data drawing on Wine Australia’s quarterly export reports while the Market Explorer enables the user to examine characteristics such as market size and growth on over 150 wine markets across the globe.
Connecting your business to marketing pushes
Wine Australia’s marketing activities across these priority markets over the next 12 months will aim to:
- super charge market diversification
- target growth across ASEAN Markets
- build pathways to increased Market Entry into USA, Canada, UK and Europe
- facilitate increased business to business matching in all target markets, and
- align investment and category building activities between Federal, state agencies and exporters.
The activities will be delivered under three key strategic pillars:
Over the coming months, there will be a range of activities for Australian wine businesses keen to learn more about these markets including: