SPANISH WINE: EXPORTS UP, REVENUES DOWN

ALTHOUGH wines from Spain are widely considered to be both high quality and an exceptional value, current low prices could spell trouble for the industry. Spain exported almost 38O million liters more wine in the first 11 months of 2O14, but its revenues were down 93 million euros, as prices took a nose dive by 31 cents per liter. That’s according to a report from the Observatorio Español del Mercado del Vino, which shows average prices from January to November ‘14 fell 21.2%. However the global picture was not entirely negative. Revenues from Belgium grew 6.7%, the Netherlands increased 5.9% and China was up 7.7%. Germany, the UK, France, the US and Japan all fell. “It seems clear that Spain exported more wine, but at cheaper prices, with the largest increase coming from bulk exports as a consequence of 2O13’s large harvest”, the report says. It also states that the solid performance of more premium wines such as DOP (Protected Denomination of Origin) wines with named regions and varieties, “do not make up for the losses incurred by the bulk wines”, since overall revenues were down versus the same period of 2O13.