CANBERRA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Australia's wine exports have grown 11 percent on the back of strong demand from northeast Asia.
Wine Australia's bi-annual export report on Wednesday revealed that the value of exports rose 11 percent to 2.71 billion Australian dollars (1.9 billion U.S. dollars) and the volume of exports rose 5 percent to 842 million liters in the 12 months to Sept. 30.
The growth was most profound in northeast Asia, including China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea, with exports to the region growing 24 percent to 1.14 billion Australian dollars (808 million U.S. dollars).
Exports to China accounted for more than 1 billion Australian dollars (709 million U.S. dollars), a landmark that was first achieved in the 12 months to March 2018.
Value exports to the Middle East rose 41 percent to 30 million Australian dollars (21.2 million U.S. dollars).
The average value of all wine exported grew 5 percent to 3.21 Australian dollars (2.27 U.S. dollars) per liter.
"Today's export figures show that there has been strong and sustainable growth over the past 12 months, delivering the third year of double-digit growth on a year ended September basis," Andreas Clark, chief executive of Wine Australia, said in a media release on Wednesday.
"Australia exports more than 60 percent of the wine we produce, so it's important that we continue to build our export markets."
While exports to China continued to soar, the value of those to the United States fell by 38 million Australian dollars (26.9 million U.S. dollars).
Exports to Europe and southeast Asia both grew by 5 percent.
