US overtakes France & Italy for wine consumption

At 311.3 million (nine litre) cases the US became the world’s largest wine consumer by volume in 2011, officially overtaking France and Italy according to Vinexpo which predicts that US wine sales are likely to rise by 10 per cent to 2015.

China, meanwhile, has overtaken the UK to assume fifth place in global wine consumption (when Hong Kong is included) with 156.19 million cases. Considerable potential here is indicated as notwithstanding China’s present consumption volume compared to the rest of the world, per capita consumption is still very low at about a litre compared to that in developed markets.

And Vinexpo predicts that China will overtake the US to become the largest global wine consumer over the next 20 years with European wine consumption continuing to fall.

According to Vinexpo Chief Executive Robert Beynat the UK will remain the world’s largest importer of wine by value to 2015.