by Daniel Lopez Roca
Caucasia Wine Thinking from Mendoza presented a sober study on recent exports earlier this week. Perhaps it most interesting aspect was the
distribution by price segment of Argentinean Malbec sold outside the country over the past the year. While the sales of wines with a case price below $15 fell 14%, sales of those above $60 increased 60%. Malbec also continues to generate most of the exports in the average price segment of $15 to $ 39 per case and as the price point rises, so does its market share, so that the average nine litre box of Malbec is now exported at around $30, the highest price among the main varietals. The American market continues to be the most dynamic for the Argentinean wine, topping two million cases. Interestingly, this growth comes exactly as the Argentinean growers had planned. Their intention had always been to highlight Malbec as the country s flagship varietal and the Americans have taken their plan to heart, posting an annual increase of 55%, well above the 32% average over all varietals. Malbec shipped to the States now averages 35 a case, up 10% on last year.
The same day, the National Institute of Vitivinicultura released figures for August 2006 showing export sales of $ 45,345,000, a growth of 19.26% over last year. From January to August sales were nearly $300m, 21.32% above the same period in 2005. On the internal market, few operations are to be observed. All hope that prices will soon surpass $ 0.50 per litre, but there are still adequate supplies at 44 cents. Although it remains to be seen what will happen to agricultural policy in Europe, this should be an excellent year for must exports.
