A 17-member wine industry taskforce has set the ambitious target of doubling the value of Australian wine sales during the next five years by focusing on getting more consumers to drink premium wines.
A 17-member wine industry taskforce has set the ambitious target of doubling the value of Australian wine sales during the next five years by focusing on getting more consumers to drink premium wines.
The taskforce, set up by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corpora-tion and the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, has spent the past 18 months researching industry conditions.
It believes getting consumers to trade-up to premium wines will help lift the value of wine sales by an additional $4 billion over the next five years.
Figures from the AWBC show that domestic and export wine sales reached $4.7 billion in 2005-06.
AWBC said that, based on current production levels and consumer trends, total wine sales in the next five years were expected to reach a cumulative $26 billion.
However, a new national industry strategy developed by the industry’s taskforce predicts total wine sales could reach $30 billion over the next five years, or an average additional $800 million a year.
Leeuwin Estate managing director Tricia Horgan was one of eight wine producers on the 17-member taskforce, which has compiled a national industry strategy to help wine producers and grape growers increase wine sales.
Taskforce chairman Kevin McLintock, who is deputy chairman of McWilliams Wines, said the industry could increase the value of wine sales through a combination of marketing initiatives targeting regional and fine wines, an increase in research and development, and a focus on sustainability at an individual winery level.
Mr McLintock said the increase in the value of wine sales would not simply be generated by lifting wine prices but instead the industry would work to improve consumers’ knowledge of the quality and diversity of Australian wine, which would lead consumers to “trade-up”.
Mr McLintock said the taskforce’s new strategy, called Wine Australia: Directions to 2025, would require a “sector-wide commitment…including a significant and visible financial stake and strong leadership from the organisations owned and managed by the industry.”
About 25 Western Australian wine companies have already contributed to a three-year consumer education campaign in the US, which positions WA as a premium wine producing region.
The US marketing strategy was organised by the Wine Industry Association of WA in 2005 and is in its final year.
The Directions to 2025 strategy calls for the wine sector to re-evaluate its current approach towards export markets and identify new and sustainable market opportunities.
The value of Australia’s wine exports hit $2.8 billion in 2005-06, with WA accounting for 1.8 per cent.
The taskforce said the majority of the world’s wine sales across the 11 markets it examines are concentrated at the lowest price point, but Australia was outperforming France, Italy and the US in the highly concentrated mid-range retail price point of between $2.50 to $4.99 per litre.
