ShowViniste The Citizen Wine Blog

A reading of the statistical review of the OIV on the wine world economy published in 2008 in Paris, April 7, 2009, we can see the first effects of the global economic crisis.

Indeed, in a context of global crisis, the world wine consumption appears, in 2008, a decrease of 2 million hectoliters compared to 2007. This overall decrease is mainly generated by a continued decline in consumption in European countries traditionally large producers and consumers: France, Italy and Spain, and Germany. It may be noted that after 15 years of growth and despite a rebound in 2007, consumption in the UK tends to stabilize in volume , and that the crisis and the deterioration of the parity of the pound led to increasing pressure on purchase prices to suppliers, particularly from the UK retail.
Contrary to the consumption of the European Union to 15 in some countries consumption rises in 2008, including the United States, whose domestic market for the first time exceeds the size of the internal market of Italy. Australian consumption also continues to rise and the economy in 2008 also recorded significant growth in wine consumption in the Czech Republic. Moreover, in 2008, South Africa, Chile and New Zealand (despite a slight decline ) maintain satisfactory levels of consumption and close to those of 2007.

The surface of global wine also marked a decrease of 28 mha in 2008. The origin of this decrease is the decline of community vineyards as a result of grub in the European wine country: the definitive grubbing in France and the restructuring of vineyards in the country recently entered the EU.
As for the overall production of wine in 2008, despite a considerable drop in European wine production, including a significant drop in French production, overall production has increased slightly from 1 million hectoliters. However, overall production in 2008, similar to those of 2001, 2003 and 2007 can be characterized as relatively low.
It should be noted that despite the global economic crisis, the global wine market has continued to grow in volume . Almost all major players, with the exception of France and Australia, have retained their position in 2008: Italy remained the world leader in volume of wine exported, the group of six new exporter countries (the Southern Hemisphere and the United States) also continued to rise.
"It is clear that the global economic crisis has played its role in lowering overall demand. However, best results were recorded by the global wine market, with volume increasing year by year: international trade accounted for 37% of world consumption in 2008 against 18% in early 1980s and 35% in 2006 , which means that nearly 37% of world wines are consumed outside their country of production, "said Federico Castellucci, Director General of the OIV.