Business & Management
World Wine Trade Continues To Grow
World wine trade expanded more than 7% in 2004, continuing the trend of recent years. Total exports were 2.026 billion gallons. This is the main finding of a recently released statistical survey by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
These data were privately obtained. As previously reported in Wines & Vines, the FAO's publications and distribution continue to be limited by budget difficulties. Essentially, its income (member nation dues) is fixed at a constant amount, but expenses at its Rome headquarters continue to rise substantially with inflation. To cope with this, FAO has placed a freeze on hiring, moved some functions to less expensive field offices, dropped other functions and has limited its publications.
World wine trade is shown in the accompanying table. In exports, Italy moved into first place, fractionally--a few thousand hectoliters--ahead of France, the traditional leader. In value, France earned twice as much as Italy, but its high, often uncompetitive prices caused French exports to drop 9%. Along with Argentina, which had tight inventory problems after a record export year in 2003, France was the only major country to show a decline. Nearly all the others, including the United States, showed substantial gains.
On the import side, the two leaders were separated by only a few thousand hectoliters (1 hectoliter = 26.4 gallons), after big gains by the United Kingdom. Together, Germany and the UK account for more than one-third of all world imports. Germany's cool climate severely limits red wine production, and hardly any grapes grow in the rainy UK.
The other big gainer was Russia, continuing a trend. Between 2000 and 2004, Russian imports tripled. Most of Moldova's shipments went to Russia, which also buys heavily in Eastern Europe. (Obviously, these figures do not reflect Russia's recent ban on Moldovan wine.)
The United States, as Wines & Vines readers know, increased imports only modestly.
As a cost-cutting measure, FAO has decided to stop collecting and publishing wine production figures. This may be a temporary measure, because some member nations are protesting it. But for now, there are no 2004 summaries from any source. The Paris-based International Wine Office (OIV) has the figures for the major producers, but the total world rack-up is not yet complete. When the data are available, we'll bring them to you.
(William F. Doering is a retired wine trade specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To comment on this article, e-mail edit@winesandvines.com.)
These data were privately obtained. As previously reported in Wines & Vines, the FAO's publications and distribution continue to be limited by budget difficulties. Essentially, its income (member nation dues) is fixed at a constant amount, but expenses at its Rome headquarters continue to rise substantially with inflation. To cope with this, FAO has placed a freeze on hiring, moved some functions to less expensive field offices, dropped other functions and has limited its publications.
World wine trade is shown in the accompanying table. In exports, Italy moved into first place, fractionally--a few thousand hectoliters--ahead of France, the traditional leader. In value, France earned twice as much as Italy, but its high, often uncompetitive prices caused French exports to drop 9%. Along with Argentina, which had tight inventory problems after a record export year in 2003, France was the only major country to show a decline. Nearly all the others, including the United States, showed substantial gains.
On the import side, the two leaders were separated by only a few thousand hectoliters (1 hectoliter = 26.4 gallons), after big gains by the United Kingdom. Together, Germany and the UK account for more than one-third of all world imports. Germany's cool climate severely limits red wine production, and hardly any grapes grow in the rainy UK.
The other big gainer was Russia, continuing a trend. Between 2000 and 2004, Russian imports tripled. Most of Moldova's shipments went to Russia, which also buys heavily in Eastern Europe. (Obviously, these figures do not reflect Russia's recent ban on Moldovan wine.)
The United States, as Wines & Vines readers know, increased imports only modestly.
As a cost-cutting measure, FAO has decided to stop collecting and publishing wine production figures. This may be a temporary measure, because some member nations are protesting it. But for now, there are no 2004 summaries from any source. The Paris-based International Wine Office (OIV) has the figures for the major producers, but the total world rack-up is not yet complete. When the data are available, we'll bring them to you.
| Exports | Imports | ||||
| Country | 2004 |
2003 |
Country |
2004 |
2003 |
| Italy |
379 |
338 |
Germany |
343 |
314 |
| France |
379 |
417 |
UK |
343 |
298 |
| Spain |
357 |
314 |
U.S. |
169 |
161 |
| Australia |
172 |
143 |
Russia |
135 |
111 |
| Chile |
124 |
103 |
France |
127 |
124 |
| U.S. |
103 |
87 |
Netherlands |
85 |
87 |
| Portugal |
82 |
82 |
Belgium-Lux. |
79 |
77 |
| Germany |
71 |
71 |
Canada |
71 |
71 |
| South Africa |
69 |
61 |
Denmark |
53 |
55 |
| Moldova |
61 |
53 |
Switzerland |
48 |
48 |
| Argentina |
42 |
50 |
Japan |
45 |
42 |
| Italy |
42 |
37 |
|||
| World Total: |
2,026 |
1,878 |
1,939 |
1,815 |
|
| ¹All data approximate |
|||||
| Source: Food and Agriculture Organization (data recovered from hectoliters to U.S. gallons) |
|||||
(William F. Doering is a retired wine trade specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To comment on this article, e-mail edit@winesandvines.com.)
SHARE »
