The nation's export earnings from wine soared to a record $611 million for the year to December 2006, up 30 percent on 2005, NZ Winegrowers says.
New Zealand's earnings from wine exports - worth $300 million a year only a couple of years ago - were benefiting from ambitious growth and marketing strategies, said Winegrowers Global marketing director Chris Yorke. "The wine industry is on track to achieve export earnings in excess of $1 billion by 2010," he said.
"The results for 2006 were extremely positive." The industry board said major markets performed well: exports to the United States were up 25 percent, the UK was up 22 percent and Australian sales jumped 47 percent.
Sales to these three markets accounted for 83 percent of exports by value in the past year. Mr Yorke said that in addition to the continued growth in these core markets, there had also been encouraging lift in year-on-year comparisons of earnings in secondary markets such as Canada (up 60 percent), Denmark (up 51 percent) and Ireland (up 41 percent). "For the first time, exports to our second tier markets topped $100 million for the year, up 30 percent in value," Mr Yorke said.
The 'Sauvignon Blanc' variety continued to lead export volumes, with a 25 percent growth in volume over the last year, but 'Pinot Noir' was firmly establishing itself as New Zealand's second-most exported variety, showing 41 percent growth. "Almost 40 percent of our 'Pinot Noir' exports go to the United States, a market that we expect to be our largest overall export destination by value in 2008," Mr Yorke said in a statement.
'Sauvignon Blanc' was the largest single variety, accounting for 75 percent of export volume, but others showed impressive growth, with 'Pinot Gris' up 67 percent and 'Merlot' up by 27 percent
Overall, the volume of wine exports increased by 13 percent and the average value earned per litre of wine was up by 15 percent.
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