Austria’s high-flying wine exports

As was expected, the diminutive wine harvest of 2016 led to a reduction in export volume for Austrian wine: 46.8 million litres amounted to a decline of 3.3% compared with the previous year. But this bad news was more than compensated for by the good news – a remarkable increase in total export value. With the record sum of 158.6 million Euros, Austria can report an impressive 7.4% growth, taking into account here that re-exports of non-Austrian wines (which flow into the total export statistics) grew as well. With this, Austria passed the 150-million-Euro mark for the first time, and the average price climbed to a satisfying 3.39 Euros.

Especially positive developments in export figures were recorded for Scandinavia and the Benelux markets, as well as for the United Kingdom, which for the first time imported more than a million litres of wine from Austria. In addition, non-EU nations such as China, Canada and Russia played a major role in the impressive export results, which along with an increase in total value also demonstrated growth in the average price per litre. Export figures in 2017 for the United States were stable.

These export figures also provide confirmation of the course Austria has chosen in recent decades for the positioning of its wine: as a high-value niche product in the hotly contested international market. And with the outstanding 2017 vintage, chances are very good that Austria will pass new milestones on this path in 2018 as well.