Wine sector: What did we miss during the just ended Summer Break?

Here below a quick “catch-up exercise” with latest news and market insights from the wine sector.

First of all, on 1 July 2019 the full text of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement (reached on 28 June 2019) was published. Wine is amongst the key agri-food products of EU export interest which would be liberalized. Furthermore, provisions covering recognition of winemaking practices, certification and labelling are included in the agreement.

On 15-19 July 2019 in Geneva, more than 600 government officials, international national experts and professionals met for the annual gathering of the World Congress of Vine and Wine 2019 to discuss and reflect on the most pressing current issues in viticulture, oenology and overall the viticultural economy.

The OIV 2019 report on the world vitivinicultural situation was also released. To note that world wine production saw a 17% increase in 2018 compared to the previous year (a total of 292 million hl). On the consumption side, overall a slight growth since 2014 has to be reported (246 milllion hl in 2018) even though in the EU it has stabilized during the last years.

Furthermore, after a 2018 record-harvest (292 million hl), recent extreme weather conditions (i.e. alternation of spring frost and summer catastrophic heat waves) impacted heavily  the 2019 harvest forecasts, notably for Italy, where a decline of 10% in comparison with 2018 has been estimated. Same goes for France – a wine output fall of an average of 12% in 2019 was predicted by the Agriculture Ministry’s Statistic Unit (AGRESTE).

In terms of wine market dynamics, the last months saw overall an increase in Australian & Chilean wine exports and a sharp slowdown in Chinese wine imports.

full note available on FE members area