Australia has been on the lookout for new sales markets since the trade war with China intensified. Now the organisation Wine Australia has identified two countries with high potential: Russia and Vietnam.
Russia, with its approximately 144 million inhabitants, consumes around 120.7 million cases of wine annually. The per capita consumption is 9.8 litres and has almost doubled in the last five years, according to the report.
Wine Australia refers to the Global Compass Report by Wine Intelligence, according to which Russia is now the tenth most attractive wine market, on par with Canada. Import volumes grew by an average of thirteen percent in 2015 to 2019, and value by seven percent, it said. Well-off millenials living in the country's big cities are mainly responsible for these developments, according to Wine Intelligence.
So far, Australian wine accounts for less than one percent of the import volume in Russia. The main suppliers are Spain, Italy and Georgia. However, Shiraz is enjoying great popularity as a variety. Russia accounted for only 0.1 percent of Australian wine exports in the year to March 2021, but exports to Russia grew twelve percent in value to just over $8 million and nine percent in volume to 1.7 million litres.
Vietnam, on the other hand, drinks a total of only 1.67 million cases of wine per year, or 0.2 litres per capita. However, the country is described as an "emerging market" in the Wine Intelligence Report. Moreover, despite COVID, the country is forecast to have positive economic growth.
Vietnam imported 10.6 million litres of wine in 2020. However, Australia's wine exports to Vietnam decreased by 50 percent in the crisis year. Nevertheless, Australia is the fourth largest importer of wine to Vietnam and has a share of eleven percent by value. Of the top ten importers, Australia thus has the highest average value (next to the UK, which exports small quantities of premium sparkling wine to Vietnam). Before COVID, the average annual growth rate since 2010 was from seven percent. Almost all Australian wine exports to Vietnam are packaged, and 83 percent are still red wine. This makes the market profile similar to that of China. aw
