IT'S been something of a bitter harvest of late for local grape growers targeting the lucrative US wine market, with a 20 per cent contraction in imports from Australia for the year to September.
IT'S been something of a bitter harvest of late for local grape growers targeting the lucrative US wine market, with a 20 per cent contraction in imports from Australia for the year to September.
The total export market for Australian wine has fallen significantly in terms of total volume, dropping more than 100 million litres from near record highs of 804 million litres a year ago to 698ML in the year ending September 2008.
The $US33 billion US wine market contracted by almost 20 per cent, falling from 217ML to 187ML.
Describing the current situation in the US, Ferngrove Wines US market manager, Paul Avery, tells of a booming market in the late '90s - thanks to popular super-ripe wines from Barossa and McLaren Vale combining with the massive success of Cassella Wines' 'Yellow Tail' in the commercial area under $10 - that is now dropping off severely.
"The situation in the US is pretty ugly for the Aussie wine category, it's certainly in the contractionary stage," Mr Avery told WA Business News.
"Now what's happened is that top end has totally collapsed, so there's a big hole if you'd like to say, between $10 and $20 in the US market.
"Unfortunately we didn't do much of a job (marketing) between 10 and 20 bucks, but this is where the opportunity is and this is where WA fits in nicely.
"The challenge now is the Australian category has been oversold so hard that distributors and importers are chopping brands and reducing their Australian exposure rather than increasing, so even though we have a different story to tell, the challenge is getting it across."
And telling that story is what Mr Avery, along with fellow winemakers and representatives from Austrade, have been trying to do.
Austrade's TradeStart export officer, Mat Lewis, has organised a number of showcases across the US to spruik WA wines.
At an event last month in San Diego, several South West wineries introduced their wines to US buyers at a tasting on board the yacht of former America's Cup skipper, Dennis Connor.
"We had representation from Leuwin, Cullen, Ferngrove, Edwards, Salitage and a couple of others on board," Mr Lewis said.
"It blows away these people if they haven't had good wine from Margaret River, or Pemberton or Great Southern...they go 'Wow, this is sensational'."
Pemberton winemaker Dan Picardy, of Picardy Wines, said it had been tough going in the US, with Australian wine stocks down to one third of what they were a couple of years ago; but he remains confident about the future.
"I think there's fair proof you don't need many Americans onside to make a lot of money," Mr Picardy told WA Business News.
"We're not talking big numbers on percentages to get a lot of sales.''
The falling currency is also helping the situation in the short term.
"We've also just had a 30 per cent discount offered to us by exchange rates so you'd hope where we lost on one hand we'd gain with the other," Mr Picardy said.
