Bumper Vintage sees local NZ Wines Sales rocket

A bumper 2014 vintage for New Zealand wineries has seen domestic sales rocket by 18 percent.

Figures revealed by New Zealand Winegrowers for the year to March 2015 show that some 60 million litres of New Zealand wine were sold locally. According to chief executive Philip Gregan, a large chunk of the growth in the period under review was from the sale of bulk wine, a category usually serviced by international suppliers. Real growth for the New Zealand wine market was about 6 percent, he told Stuff.co.nz.

Including imported wine, total sales in New Zealand during 2014 totalled about 95 million litres, he said. Over the same period, local winemakers exported 196 million litres of wine worth $1.38 billion, an increase of 5 percent on 2013.

Australia remains the country’s largest export market, but Gregan predicted the United States would overtake it by May 2016. While sales to Australia dropped 3 percent in the past year, largely due to that country’s economic downturn, exports to both the United States and Britain increased by 9 percent.

After coming off a peak in February 2013, sales to China had started to grow again and were up by 22 percent. But while NZ Winegrowers was optimistic about the future for New Zealand wine in China, Gregan stressed it was a long-term opportunity rather than a short-term one.

See full story on Stuff.co.nz: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/68590188/Domestic-New-Zealand-wine-sales-up-18-per-cent