The trend estimate for domestic sales of Australian produced wine was 34.6 million litres in April 2008, a decrease of 1.4pc from March 2008, according to new figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

But the seasonally adjusted estimate for domestic sales of Australian produced wine was 33.5 million litres in April 2008, a decrease of 2.7pc on March 2008 and a fall of 10.1pc on April last year.

The ABS trend estimate for domestic sales of Australian produced white wine fell by 1.3pc to 17ML this month, but was 5.2pc lower than the same time last year.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for domestic sales of Australian produced white wine was 16.5ML in April 2008, a decrease of 1.3pc on March 2008 and 8.7pc lower than April 2007.

For red and rose wine, the ABS trend estimate for domestic sales was 1.0pc lower than last month and a 6.1pc decrease on April 2007.

And the seasonally adjusted estimate for domestic sales of Australian produced red and rosé wine was 12.3ML in April 2008, a decrease of just 0.2pc on March 2008.

The ABS reports that exports of Australian produced wine also decreased by 1.2pc this month to 56.8ML.

The value of the exported wine in April 2008 was $197.3 million.

Australia exported 730.2ML, with a total value of $2.8 billion in the 12 months ending April 2008.

This was a fall of 7.9pc in volume and a decrease of 2.3pc in value over the corresponding period to April 2007.