'New world' Vineyards Stealing A March On Europeans In Fast-Growing Market

Close up taken 06 September 2006 of grapes in a Montgenost vineyard, in the Champagne area, eastern France, on the first day of handpicking. A wet month of August will mean a bumper grape crop for French vineyards, wine industry officials said Tuesday as harvesting got underway in several regions. Photo courtesy of Francois Nascimbeni and AFP.

by Christian Charcossey
Paris (AFP) Oct 05, 2006
Vineyards in the new world and even in China are stealing a march on traditionally dominant European producers in the race to slake the world's fast-growing thirst for wine. From having a market share of just 1.6 percent 20 years ago, wines from countries like Chile, Australia and the United States now have a 25.5 percent slice of the 100 billion dollar (80 billion euro) global market, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).

The European Union's five biggest producers -- Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Portugal -- have seen their proportion slump to 62.1 percent from 75 percent in the same period.

But this turning on its head of the industry is only just beginning as wine consumption rockets in countries like the United States, Britain and Germany, and also in Asia.

After seeing consumption halve between 1975 and 2004, France remains the biggest market, consuming 53 litres (14 US gallons) per capita every year, or 32.6 million hectolitres in total, ahead of Italy, the United States and Germany.

But this is soon to change, with the US set to be the world's biggest wine market by 2008, according to a study by Britain's ISWR/DGR.

US consumption is forecast to rise to 27.7 million hectolitres, up by nearly 30 percent compared to 2003, ahead of Italy with 27.2 million hectolitres and France with 26.9 million, ISWR/DGR expects.

Germans and Britons are also abandoning in droves their steins and pints in favour of a glass of wine, and together with the US the three countries are forecast to account for three quarters in the growth in consumption in coming years.

"In Britain and the US, more and more people are moving to wine at the expense of beer," said Federico Castelluci, OIV's director.

Global wine consumption fell from between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s but in the past decade the market has been growing at an annual rate of 0.5 percent.

As with other areas of the economy, it is in Asia that the strongest growth is being seen, shooting up 15 percent between 1998 and 2003, compared with just 4 percent for the rest of the world, according to research institute Euromonitor International.

Europe remains the biggest producer, making around two-thirds of wine consumed globally, but other areas are snapping at their heels, including in China, currently the world's seventh biggest producer with 11 million litres annually.

Chinese output is also set to rise up the rankings in coming years, planting tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of vines every year.

Global warming is also having an effect, with warmer weather helping regions previously unsuited to mass winemaking, such as Britain, to make their mark.

"It is quite possible for there to be vineyards all over Normandy, Britain or the Netherlands by the end of the century," said Bernard Seguin, an expert at the French National Agronomy Institute (INRA) in southeastern Avignon.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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