The weak dollar has shown itself in the latest stats on wine sales. Here's the bad news from Winespiritsdaily.com:
DOMESTIC WINES OVERWHELM IN JULY Growth of domestic wines overwhelmed imports in the four weeks to August 10, according to IRI data. Dollar sales of domestics grew 5.1%, while volume rose 2.8%. Meanwhile, imported wines declined -1.4% in value and a whopping -6% in volume. All table wines combined grew 3.6% in dollar sales and 1.2% in volume. Countries with a strong currency, and coincidentally more developed wine industry, seemed to suffer the most during the period. The value of Australian table wines fell -4.4% in the four weeks to August 10, while volume declined 4.9%. French wines were down -2.8% in dollar sales and -10.5% in volume. German wines declined -1.4% in sales and -9.9% in volumes, while Italian vino declined -2.6% in value and -9.2% in case sales. Wow.
The article goes on to say that wines from Argentina, Chile and a few other countries with comparatively weak currencies are rushing in to fill the gap.
These sales figures no doubt reflect the past year's high purchase price from the euro zone producers. The dollar is at one-year highs against the euro -- about $1.41 vs $1.60 a couple of months ago -- but still weak. The sole ray of good news I glean from this is that "super premium" wines ($15-20 at retail) are doing surprisingly well given the glum economy. Maybe regular wine drinkers are trading down a little bit?
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