All right, thank you.
This can and must be supported at both the federal and provincial level through Growing Forward 2 and its related programming.
A third key avenue for premium VQA wines is direct sales to the trade. When given the opportunity to sell directly to the customer, our wineries have made a strong success in sales to the trade in the province. From our perspective, the lesson of direct delivery is that with this personal service we can grow our business even in the face of imported wines and consignment pricing.
Fourth is the export of our wines. This continues to be a significant opportunity for Canadian wines, particularly ice wines. Working together under the auspices of an industry-led national export strategy, VQA wineries continue to grow the profile of ice wines and premium table wines abroad. Our concerns around the constant cuts to our export initiatives have been spoken about earlier.
Last but not least, there are our sales at the cellar door. For the vast majority of wineries in Ontario, transactions at the winery are the primary vehicle for sales. Currently in Ontario, there are approximately 130 wineries commercially active in producing and selling VQA wines. Cellar door sales are primarily driven through the significant tourism markets that the wine-country experience attracts to our market. It is at the cellar door that our customers make an important emotional connection with both the wine-country experience and the wines, and this is what they want to be able to subscribe to and bring back home. Whether this is an on-site transaction of any volume or a desire to reorder product, the inability to service this request directly for Canadian out-of-province customers proves embarrassing for the winery and frustrating for the customer.
The Ontario VQA wine industry has demonstrated significant success in a short time. In the past five years alone, revenue reported by our industry has grown by 40%. We have weathered the economic downturn experienced in Canada and Ontario by continuing to report positive sales results and incremental increases to market share. As a result of gains in the marketplace, our wine industry has increased its positive impact on the Ontario and Canadian economy.
I look forward to our discussions and your questions here today. Thank you.