NZ wine industry may see 'pretty strong harvest'
NZ wine industry may see 'pretty strong harvest'
Mar 13, 2013 6
(DailyMercury) - THE wine industry risks slipping back into overproduction as one of the driest summers in living memory provides outstanding grape-growing conditions across the country, says an analyst.
This year's vintage is expected to be bigger than the 269,000-tonne harvest in 2012, which was 18 per cent smaller than the 2011 crop and helped to rebalance supply and demand in the sector.
A bumper vintage in 2008, when the country was also being hit by drought, resulted in a 27-million-litre glut that eroded wine, land and grape prices and led to an increase in exports of cheaper bulk wine - product shipped in giant plastic bladders.
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