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Wines of Austria celebrates 25% rise in exports

04 October 2021 By Arabella Mileham

Austria saw a huge boost in the value of its wine exports in the first half of 2021, with values rising to over €111 million – up 25% on the same period last year – on the back of substantial growth in all key export markets following the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.

(photo: Austrian Wine Marketing Board/Vinexpo Explorer)

Volume growth also rose, by 9.8% to , but the growth of sales of higher quality wine helped push the average price per litre rose to €3.02, up €0.38 on the same period last year.

Chris Yorke, the CEO of Austrian Wine (The Austrian Wine Marketing Body) said that although the team had hoped that the relaxation of global COVID-19 restrictions would be beneficial for its exports, the current figures far exceeded their expectations.

“While the hospitality industry is, sadly, only recovering slowly in the domestic market, the reopening of the hospitality industry internationally has meant that our winemakers have also been able to improve sales of their high-quality wines – as shown by the large increase in the export value,” he said.

The boost means that the industry is on track to achieving its objective of annual export values of €200 million

“Whether we attain this goal this year depends to a large extent on what happens between July and December,” Yorke said.

The rise was also not purely due to favourable comparables, Austrian Wine pointed out, as wine exports in the first half of 2020 remained relatively stable. In the six months from January to June 2020, Austria’s wine exports fell 1% in value – which was much less than was feared – and rose 7.4% by volume.

Top exports

Austria’s largest market, Germany – which accounts for 42% of its exports – saw growth of 15%, despite being a very price sensitive market while values rose by 21% in Switzerland (which accounts for nearly 11% of the market) and 33% in its third most important market, the US (which accounts for 9.6%).

Exports to the Scandinavian ‘monopoly’ markets rose strongly for the second year running, up 14% , while Belgium and the Netherlands added a combined increase of 37%. Exports to Canada (another ‘monopoly’ market) rose strongly (+111%), while the UK, which makes up around 2.66% of exports saw strong growth, of 52% in the United Kingdom, despite Brexit. The Asian markets also saw strong growth, albeit of a smaller base, with Japanese exports up 52%, and China up a whopping 247%.

Figures showed strong boost to sparkling wines, up 45% by value, ahead of white wine and red ‘Qualitätswein’, which saw value growth of +33% and +18% respectively.

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