World wine market worth €28.3bn
At the same time global wine consumption has stablised since the 2008 economic crisis and is estimated at 240 million hectolitres for 2015, up slightly on 2014. As a result, the world wine trade continues to grow in volume to 104.3 million hectolitres (up 1.8%) and especially in value which rose by 10.6% to €28.3 billion.
The statistics formed part of a state-of-the-global-wine-market address by the Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (or OIV) Jean-Marie Aurand at the Organisation’s headquarters in Paris recently.
As China’s and New Zealand’s vineyard surface area continued to increase, EU vineyards decreased slightly between 2014 and 2015. Spain remains the clear leader in terms of the cultivated surface area with over a million hectares (1.021 million ha), ahead of China (0.82 million ha) and France (0.78 million ha).
The biggest wine producer in the world at 49.5 million hl, Italy, grew production by 12% in 2015 compared to the previous year. France followed Italy on 47.5 million hl and then Spain (37.2 million hl). Production in the US ran at 22.1 million hl.
In the Southern Hemisphere, production declined in Argentina to 13.4 million hl but increased in Chile to 12.9 million hl and remained stable in Australia at 11.9 million hl. Production fell slightly both in South Africa (11.2 million hl) and China (11 million hl).
With a consumption figure of 31 million hectolitres, the US confirmed its position as the biggest global consumer country. Consumption was relatively stable in Italy (20.5 million hl) and Spain (10 million hl), yet continued to erode in France (27.2 million hl) compared to 2014. The level of consumption in China is estimated at 16 million hl – a slight increase of 0.5 million hl compared with 2014.
