Australian wines expected to gain traction in India

By Spiritz Desk in Cover Story
New Update

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India has emerged as one of the main destinations for Australian wines. Australian wine exports to India grew by 81 percent in value to reach $12 million and 72 percent in volume to reach 2.5 million litres in 2021.
This positive development in the light of the recent India-Australia trade pact gives Dr. Martin Cole, CEO of Wine Australia, a lot
to look forward to as far as Australia’s wine business with India is concerned. He believes the trade pact will make India a more viable proposition for small to medium winemakers from Australia who have not previously contemplated entering into the Indian market. Dr. Martin joined this apex wine body at a particularly critical time when Covid-19 had taken its toll on Australian wine exports and the country lost its biggest wine exports market - China.
Here is the exclusive interview of him with Bishan Kumar:

Q. What is the key focus of Wine Australia at present?

The key focus for Wine Australia currently has been diversifying and intensifying its efforts in the market and driving innovation and investment across research, development and adoption to maintain a competitive wine sector for Australia.

As the Head of Wine Australia, what is your strategy to ensure that Australian wines do well in the global market and compete with the old world wine countries?

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Reigniting growth through market diversification is a key priority for Wine Australia and we are supporting this through our market insights, marketing and regulatory functions. We are encouraging businesses to make use of our free resources and services, including tailored consults for those looking to explore new markets.

We are delivering market entry programs, such as Export Ready USA, Explore Canada & Explore UK, and the US Market Entry Program, to help wine exporters from Australia looking to enter these markets.

We are also working very closely with the Australian Government to build opportunities and trade relationships in other markets. We have developed the Australian Wine CONNECT platform to help Australian wine producers connect with distributors and retailers.

Q. Give us a sense of the current status of Australian wines in international markets and tell us which countries are the largest buyers of Australian wines.

Global shipping issues and Covid-19 have taken their toll on our wine exports – and the loss of the China market has been a challenge. Export of Australian wines in volume declined by 17 percent, while it declined by 29.8 percent in value, in the year ended on December 2021 against the year ended on December 2020.

Still red wine is leading in all the categories of wine exports from Australia with A$1364.9M value followed by still white wine, sparkling wine, still rose wine and other wines. After China mainland imposed tariff restriction on Australia, the UK emerged as a leading export destination for Australian wines, followed by the US and Hong Kong.

India has also emerged as one of the main destinations for Australian wines as available export data for the year ended December 2021 shows. As per the data, Australia’s wine exports to India surged by 81 percent in terms of value in the year ended in December 2021 against the year ended in December 2020. During that period the export of wines from Australia to India escalated from A$ 6.5 M to A$11.8m.

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Australia’s wine export data to India reflects that sparkling wine’s export was leading in all categories of wine exports. Exports of sparkling wines from Australia to India impressively rose to 251.9 percent in December 2021 as compared to December 2020.

The priority for us is to re-energise our traditional wine markets like the UK and the US, continue the wine education process and emphasise on the innovations underway in Australian wine, while exploring new opportunities.

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