Wine industry profitability plummeted further due to larger than expected recent vintages and the global economic recession, according to a new survey.

The fourth annual survey for the wine industry - Vintage 2009 – which was released today by Deloitte and New Zealand Winegrowers, shows while most winemakers are managing to make positive returns, profitability has been declining since 2007.

Government-owned AsureQuality has established an Auckland-based export wine certification laboratory to analyse wine destined for Europe.

AsureQuality is a commercial company that provides food safety and biosecurity services to the food and primary production sectors.

The organisation has been granted formal recognition by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) for analysing wines for export to the European Union (EU).

Young Australians with higher incomes are fuelling a growing interest in New Zealand wines across the Tasman, with volume sales up by 42.3%.

The oversupply issue created by two bumper harvests has seen kiwi winemakers stretch into new markets in search of new customers.

But there is also growing demand from one of the oldest and closest international markets for local wines, according to a new Nielsen report.

The report found that volume sales were up 42.3% over the financial year to 2009, while sales value has doubled over the last three years.

New Zealand wineries may be well aware of the dangers of oversupply, but a new study has revealed they also need to keep a close eye on their debt levels.

With the 2008 vintage producing a bumper crop that led to fears of a wine glut, the third annual Deloitte financial benchmarking survey for that vintage – released this week – unsurprisingly focused on oversupply concerns.

New Zealand wine exports have cracked the billion dollar mark with $1.01 billion worth of wine sold in the year to the end of July on the back of a bumper wine harvest.

The industry’s long-term goal of reaching that billion dollar barrier has been achieved a year ahead of schedule.