Wednesday, 2 October, 2024
The Drinks Business, Sarah Neish
Between July 2023 and January 2024, New Zealand wine exports dropped by 24% volume and 22% value, reveals the latest annual report by New Zealand Winegrowers.
For any other country right now these figures, while hardly cause to jump for joy, would neither be entirely shocking given the current state of global wine consumption. But for New Zealand, which has so far proved itself to be more or less immune to changing consumer habits, it will no doubt have come as a slap in the face.
By June 2024 exports had recovered slightly, growing by 6%. But has the impenetrable shield of New Zealand winemakers been dented?
Undermined profitability
Overall to the year ending June 2024, New Zealand wine exports were down 11% compared with the previous year, which New Zealand Winegrowers has attributed to “reduced replenishment orders from importers, distributors and retailers”. Compounding the sliding numbers is the fact that vintage 2024 looks likely to be a small harvest (only 395,000 tonnes of grapes crushed compared with 501,000 tonnes in 2023), and the report predicts that many New Zealand wineries will need to “draw down on any inventory they may have carried over from previous vintages to support both international and domestic sales.”
To read the full article, click HERE.