Wine consumption at its lowest level since 1996: higher price discourages consumers, says interest group

Wine consumption at its lowest level since 1996: higher price discourages consumers, says interest group | Abroad

The amount of wine consumed worldwide reached the lowest level in 27 years last year. This is reported by the International Organization for Vine and Wine (OIV). The organization attributes this to the increased price of wine, which discourages people from buying a bottle every now and then.

The Paris-based OIV estimates that wine consumption reached 221 million hectoliters last year, a decline of 2.6 percent compared to the previous year. One hectoliter is equal to 133 standard wine bottles.

According to the OIV, the price increase of wine has several causes. These include disruptions in global supply chains and increased production and distribution costs.

The OIV also expects that production in 2023 will be lower than previously estimated. The organization now assumes 237 million hectoliters of wine, while an estimate of 244 million hectoliters was made in November. That is the lowest harvest since 1961, and a tenth lower than in 2022. The lower estimate is partly the result of bad weather last year, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. Think of early frost, heavy rainfall but also drought. Global fungal diseases also had an impact.

The trend is partly due to inflation, which has increased the cost and therefore the price of a bottle of wine, while consumer purchasing power has decreased

Production of Italian wines is plummeting

Italy produced no less than 23 percent less wine last year than in 2022, meaning that the wine country experienced its worst year since 1950 with a production of 38 million hectoliters. Spain also experienced a decline of 21 percent to 28 million hectoliters, while the harvest rose slightly in France (increase of 4 percent to 48 million hectoliters), making France by far the largest wine producer in the world last year.

The harvest fell by 11 percent in Chile, 26 percent in Australia and 10 percent in South Africa, the three largest producers in the Southern Hemisphere. In South America, Argentina in particular was hit hard by bad weather conditions. There, production fell by 23 percent to the lowest level since 1957.

Trend of declining consumption continued

Wine consumption fell by 3 percent last year, to 221 million hectoliters. That is the lowest level since 1996. There has been a downward trend since 2018 – with the exception of 2021, when many corona measures were lifted.

The trend is partly due to inflation, which has increased the cost of production and therefore the price of a bottle or keg of wine, while consumer purchasing power has fallen. Consumption has also fallen sharply in China (-25 percent), due to the economic slowdown there.

Per capita, the Portuguese, French and Italians are the biggest wine drinkers.