Losing its competitive edge? Australian wine performance in the noughties

Abstract

Australia led the way in the global wine market from the 1980s in pioneering wine as a universal lifestyle beverage, eroding the share of the market supplied by the traditional (so-called 'Old World') producers. By the turn of the century, the strategy of the wine industry had been imitated to varying degrees and at different intervals by other Southern Hemisphere New World (SHNW) wine-producing countries (Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa); the hunter had become the hunted. It had come under increasing competitive pressure from other SHNW producers during the noughties, exemplified by a decline in revealed comparative advantage in wine (Anderson and Nelgen 2011). We examine Australia's performance in wine production and exports, comparing it with the performance of other main wine-producing countries during this period. The focus is on five New World producers as the principal competitors to Australian wine exporters (SHNW producers plus USA) and the five major Old World wine-producing countries: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany. The period of study is 2000 to 2009.