U.S. Wine Exports Surge 30 Percent in 2006, Led by California

“U.S. wine exports, mostly from California, soared 30 percent in value and 4 percent in volume last year, after slipping in 2005, according to a new study of Commerce Department data by the Wine Institute trade group. Exports rose to $876 million and 404.5 million liters last year, with California generating 95 percent of the total. In Europe, where the U.S. makes more than half of its foreign sales, exports surged 48 percent by value. In Canada, they increased 29 percent. ‘This dramatic sales growth in 2006 must be placed in perspective, as it does follow a decrease in 2005,’ says Joseph Rollo, director of the international department at the Wine Institute, which represents more than 1,000 California wineries and related businesses. `Nonetheless, the long-term trend of California wine exports shows steady expansion in all major markets and growth in new, undeveloped markets. The 2006 number represents a 106 percent increase in exports by value in the last decade.’ The growth is particularly encouraging because Europe has long had a protected wine industry, with tariffs that can run 2 1/2 times the U.S. rate. `The export growth is impressive considering the trade barriers that California wineries face in markets worldwide,’ Rollo said in a phone interview, `where they have distribution restrictions and the wineries receive production subsidies from their governments’. “