Foster's Group has stopped exporting some Australian wines to the UK because it is more profitable to sell them elsewhere . Peter Jackson, MD of Foster's Wine Estates' EU business, says the "incredible pressure" on prices in the UK wine market because of strong competition between supermarkets meant the company could get better prices in other regions, including the US & Asia. The Australian company owns wine brands Penfolds, Rosemount & Lindemans. Mr Jackson says he can no longer get allocations of some kinds of boutique wines from Australia, particularly Pinot Noir, for the UK market. He is getting smaller allocations of wines from "hot" regions such as W Australia & New Zealand. "My allocations are a lot smaller than they used to be," he says. "Wine companies are allocating products far more to the most profitable markets." Dan Jago, Tesco director for wine, says some of the top Australian and New Zealand wines are in short supply but the retailer has had no problems sourcing from Chile, Argentina and South Africa. Foster's has also started sourcing more wine from Chile and South Africa.
