U.S. wine exports jump 30 percent by value in 2006

U.S. wine exports jump 30 percent by value in 2006    U.S. wine exports for 2006, 95 percent coming from California, jumped 30 percent in value and 4 percent in volume over the previous year. According to numbers compiled by the Wine Institute, U.S. businesses exported more than $876 million and 404.5 million liters of wine in 2006.
   Exports to Europe, which now represents more than half of annual sales abroad, surged 48 percent of the same year-ago period. Exports to Canada grew 29 percent by value.
   The 2006 numbers represent a 59 percent increase in exports by value over the last decade.
   “The growth is impressive considering the trade barriers that California wineries face in markets worldwide, such as protectionist tariffs, distribution restrictions and competition from foreign producers who receive production subsidies from their governments. The recently signed U.S.-EU wine agreement gives California wineries assurance that the EU market will remain open to California wines and that trade requirements will be consistent, providing producers in both markets a stable environment for trade,” said Robert P. Koch, Wine Institute President and chief executive officer.
   California exports to Europe have grown steadily as wineries have adjusted to the challenge of an increasingly price-sensitive consumer, the Wine Institute said in a statement. Many California wineries now ship finished wines to Europe for bottling and distribution in other EU member states in order to reduce the freight costs of shipping bottles.
   Other major growth markets outside of Europe and Canada include:
   • China, up 53 percent by value.
   • Singapore, up 68 percent.
   • Hong Kong, up 19 percent.
   The Wine Institute, based in San Francisco, Calif., is an association of California wineries supporting their products through political advocacy, market development, media relations, research, and education.