The 2006-07 year was one of mixed fortunes for the wine industry with wine production down but sales of wine increasing.

According to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics the total grape crush for 2006-07 came in at 1.4 million tonnes, half a million tonnes less than 2005-06. This produced 978 million litres of wine, down by nearly a third (32 per cent).

Wine production for both red and white wines fell during the year—red/rosé wine went down by 39% (to 472 million litres), and white wine fell 24% (475 million litres).

Australian wine exports continued to increase, reaching 787 million litres (up 9 per cent) for a total value of $2.9bn (up 4 per cent).

However, the average price per litre dropped from $3.82 in 2005-06 to $3.66 in 2006-07.

Sales to the UK accounted for just over one third (34 per cent or 269 million litres) of all wine exports by volume while the European Union market imported 416 million litres of wine, and North America imported 262 million litres.

Domestic wine sales also increased with local drinkers putting away 449 million litres, an increase of 4 per cent.

The combination of reduced production and increased sales has caused the inventories of table wine to fall 15 per cent from last year's high (2.1 billion litres) to 1.8 billion litres.

There were 13 winemakers that crushed more than 20,000 tonnes of grapes each, accounting for a total of 1.03 million tonnes of grapes or nearly three-quarters (74 per cent of the national crush. At the other end of the scale, there were 199 small winemakers with a crush between 50 and 400 tonnes.

More than 30 per cent of all winemaking locations were in South Australia and these accounted for 43% of the national wine grape crush.