Although the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB) had cautiously predicted at its annual press conference last December that total exports for 2009 was likely to remain unchanged from the previous year, the latest figures from Statistik Austria show a dramatic growth in 2009; exports rose by 5.3% in value and an incredible 16% in volume.
With nearly 70 million liters of wine exported during the year, revenues increased from € 112 million to € 119 million. With a generous harvest of 2008 there was an over-proportional increase in barrel wine exports and the volume of bottled wine exports also rose by 3.7% with the value increase of 4.4%. There was no increase in the average price per liter which changed from € 2.59 in 2008 to only € 2.60 in 2009.
The results are very impressive especially since Austria’s suffered a crash in exports for 2009 due to recession. Notable increase in the key markets was Germany (volume 15%; value 9%) and Switzerland/Liechtenstein (volume 27%; value 6%), and growing markets such as the Netherlands (volume 30%; value 27%); Sweden (volume 51%; value 38%), and Japan (volume 33%; value 10%).
"The successful development of Austrian wine has already been underway for 10 years, and is something unique amongst European wine countries," says a beaming Willi Klinger, general manager of the AWMB. “When compared internationally, Austria is truly one of the most dynamic wine countries." He also hopes there is less confusion in people’s mind now about Austria being a small European country adjoining Germany and Italy and is far away from Australia, the Kangaroo country.
Josef Pleil, President of the Austrian Viticulture Association also conveyed his enthusiasm and appreciated the outstanding work AWMB- the export promotion body of Austria, has been doing for several years now."
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