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World Wine Trends
A representative of FAS attended the economic sessions of the OIV (International Organization of Wine) World Congress Conference held in Paris, France in June 2000. It provided an opportunity to make international contacts and learn about the world wine situation and outlook.
Acreage, Production, and Consumption: In the 1980's and 1990's, overall world grape acreage declined for several reasons, including devastation due to phylloxera. The trend began to reverse in the late 1990's after fields were reconstructed, plantings increased, and yields improved. In 1999, the countries with the largest total grape acreage (includes table and wine grapes) were Spain (1.2 million hectares), France (918,000 ha), Italy (909 ha), Turkey (602,000 ha), and the United States (357,000 ha).
Wine production and consumption also followed this pattern of decline in the 1980's and 1990's and expansion in the late 1990's. The European Union is the largest wine producer with 210 million hectoliters. The top producers in 1999 were France (60 million hl), Italy (58 million hl), Spain (32 million hl), the United States (21 million hl), and Argentina (16 million hl). The world trend is toward producing quality wine.
Trade: In 1999, the top exporters were Italy (16.5 million hl), France (15.9 million hl), Spain (9.1 million hl), the United States (2.8 million hl), and Australia (2.6 million hl). Of these, only the United States and Australia had increasing export trends over the last several years. Australia’s growth has been particularly noteworthy; it has an aggressive plan for expansion and is expected to soon surpass the United States.
The top importers were Germany (12.1 million hl), the United Kingdom (8.8 million hl), France (5.6 million hl), the United States (4.3 million hl), Japan (3.2 million hl), and Russia (2.9 million hl). Only the United States, Japan, and Canada show rising import trends over the last several years. It is interesting to note Russia’s status, as this is a market that has been largely overlooked by U.S. exporters.
(For further information, contact Shari Kosco at 202-720-9792 or koscos@fas.usda.gov.)
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