Australia's wine export for 2006 reached record levels thanks to markets like China and Sweden, said the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation in a report released on Monday.

Australia, one of the world's major wine exporters, sold overseas 757 million liters of wine in 2006, up 8 percent from the previous year. The value grew 1 percent to 2.82 billion Australian dollars (2.19 billion U.S. dollars) last year.

China made the largest contribution to both volume and value growth. Volume to China grew 17 million liters to reach 21 million liters and value grew 23 million dollars (17.9 million U.S. dollars) to reach 36 million dollars (28 million U.S. dollars), said the report.

Sweden was another key contributor to the 2006 growth, ranked number two in value growth and fifth in volume growth.

The United Kingdom remained Australia's number one market with volume up 2 percent to 266 million liters.

The record results were notched despite tougher global competition and a more difficult trading environment, the corporation's information and analysis manager Lawrie Stanford said in the report.

Source: Xinhua