IN YEAR ONE of the Covid-19 crisis, wine consumption internationally dropped by [just] 3%. “A Year of Resilience”, was how the director general of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) Pau Roca described 2020 at the OIV's 2021 conference about the state of the world, viticulturally and viniculturally speaking.
From the OIV’s headquarters in Paris, Roca reported that the size of the world's vineyard remained stable and that world wine production was slightly up – in fact 7% up in the case of South Africa, with other countries to show volume growth including Spain (21%), France (11%), New Zealand (11%), Italy (3%), Germany and Georgia (both 2%). However, world wine consumption in 2020 was estimated at 234mhl, 3% down on 2019 and the lowest level recorded since 2002, and worst affected among the Top 20 wine-consuming nations was South Africa, with consumption down 19% year-on-year.
Consumer behaviour in 2020 was influenced by factors including the length and strictness of Covid-19 lockdown measures, associated policies such as sales bans, as well as the drop in tourism. The closure of hotels and restaurants was only partially compensated for by the increase in sales via e-commerce, and premium wine suffered most from the closure of restaurants and tasting rooms, with sparkling wine the category hardest hit.
In terms of wine exports around the world, there was an overall contraction of 1.7% in volume, down to 105.8mhl, and of 6.7% in value, down to €29.6-billion. Of the Top 10 exporters on the basis of volume, South Africa experienced the biggest drop of 12% (the country falls outside the Top 10 by value).
It would seem that many Cape wine producers, and the industry body ‘Wines of South Africa' who are mandated to promote exports, have their work cut out for them to turn things around internationally, while on the local scene one can expect to continue seeing special deals and price promotions in an effort to deal with surplus stocks.
ACCORDING to OIV statistics released in April 2021, the area under vine throughout the world was estimated at 7.3 million hectares in 2020 (stable since 2017), with total wine production estimated at 260 million hectolitres – about the same as 2019, down from 292 in 2018, vs 250 million hectolitres in 2017, the lowest in the 21st century to date.
The OIV's 2020 data has South Africa ranked seventh among the biggest wine-producing countries on the planet, ahead of Chile and Germany and just behind Australia. The Top 3 account for more than half of the world's production, the Top 8 more than 77% of all wine produced – volumes given in millions of hectolitres:
1 Italy – 49.1 mhl (47.5 in 2019, 54.8 in 2018, 42.5 in 2017)
2 France – 46.6 mhl (42.2 in 2019, 49.2 in 2018, 36.4 in 2017)
3 Spain – 40.7 mhl (33.7 in 2019, 44.9 in 2018, 32.5 in 2017)
4 USA – 22.8 mhl (25.6 in 2019, 26.1 in 2018, 24.5 in 2017)
5 Argentina – 10.8 mhl (13.0 in 2019, 14.5 in 2018, 11.8 in 2017)
6 Australia – 10.6 mhl (12.0 in 2019, 12.7 in 2018, 13.7 in 2017)
7 South Africa – 10.4 mhl (9.7 in 2019, 9.5 in 2018, 10.8 in 2017)
8 Chile – 10.3 mhl (11.9 in 2019, 12.9 in 2018, 9.5 in 2017)
9 Germany – 8.4 mhl (8.2 in 2019, 10.3 in 2018, 7.5 in 2017)
10 China – 6.6 mhl (7.8 in 2019, 9.3 in 2018, 11.6 in 2017)
11 Portugal – 6.4 mhl (6.5 in 2019, 6.1 in 2018, 6.7 in 2017)
12 Russia – 4.4 mhl (4.6 in 2019, 4.3 in 2018, 4.5 in 2017)
13 Romania – 3.6 mhl (3.8 in 2019, 5.1 in 2018, 4.3 in 2017)
14 New Zealand – 3.3 mhl (3.0 in 2019, 3.0 in 2018, 2.9 in 2017)
15 Hungary – 2.4 mhl (2.7 in 2019, 3.6 in 2018, 2.5 in 2017)
16 Austria – 2.4 mhl (2.5 in 2019, 2.8 in 2018, 2.5 in 2017)
17 Greece – 2.3 mhl (2.4 in 2019, 2.2 in 2018, 2.6 in 2017)
18 Brazil – 1.9 mhl (2.0 in 2019, 3.1 in 2018, 3.6 in 2017)
19 Georgia – 1.8 mhl (1.8 in 2019, 1.7 in 2018, 1.0 in 2017)
The countries with the biggest vineyard plantings are as follows, with the Top 6 representing 56% of the world's vineyard surface area:
1 Spain – 961 000 hectares (966 000 hectares in 2019)
2 France – 797 000 hectares (794 000 hectares in 2019)
3 China – 785 000 hectares (781 000 hectares in 2019)
4 Italy – 719 000 hectares (713 000 hectares in 2019)
5 Turkey – 431 000 hectares (436 000 hectares in 2019)
6 USA – 405 000 hectares (407 000 hectares in 2019)
7 Argentina – 215 000 hectares (215 000 hectares in 2019)
8 Chile – 207 000 hectares (210 000 hectares in 2019)
9 Portugal – 194 000 hectares (195 000 hectares in 2019)
10 Romania – 190 000 hectares (191 000 hectares in 2019)
11 Iran – 167 000 hectares (167 000 hectares in 2019)
12 India – 151 000 hectares (151 000 hectares in 2019)
13 Australia – 146 000 hectares (146 000 hectares in 2019)
14 Moldova – 140 000 hectares (143 000 hectares in 2019)
15 South Africa – 122 000 hectares (122 000 hectares in 2019)
16 Uzbekistan – 112 000 hectares (112 000 hectares in 2019)
17 Greece – 109 000 hectares (109 000 hectares in 2019)
18 Germany – 103 000 hectares (103 000 hectares in 2019)
19 Russia – 96 000 hectares (96 000 hectares in 2019)
20 Afghanistan – 96 000 hectares (96 000 hectares in 2019)
The countries that export the most wine:
1 Italy – 20.8 mhl valued at €6.2 bn (21.4mhl / €6.4bn in 2019)
2 Spain – 20.2 mhl valued at €2.6 bn (21.4mhl / €2.7bn in 2019)
3 France – 13.6 mhl valued at €8.7 bn (14.3mhl / €9.8bn in 2019)
4 Chile – 8.5 mhl valued at €1.6 bn (8.7mhl / €1.7bn in 2019)
5 Australia – 7.5 mhl valued at €1.8 bn (7.4mhl / at €1.8bn in 2019)
6 Argentina – 4.0 mhl valued at €0.6 bn (3.1mhl / €0.7bn in 2019)
7 USA – 3.6 mhl valued at €1.1 bn (3.6mhl / €1.2bn in 2019)
8 South Africa – 3.6 mhl valued at €0.5 bn (4.1mhl / €0.6bn in 2019)
9 Germany – 3.4mhl valued at €0.9 bn (3.8mhl / €1.0bn in 2019)
10 Portugal – 3.1 mhl valued at €0.8 bn (3.0mhl / €0.8bn in 2019)
11 New Zealand – 2.9 mhl valued at €1.1 bn (2.7mhl / €1.1bn in 2019)
The countries that import the most wine:
1 United Kingdom – 14.6 mhl / €3.8 bn (14mhl / €3.9bn in 2019)
2 Germany – 14.1 mhl / €2.6 bn (14.8mhl / €2.6bn in 2019)
3 USA – 12.3 mhl valued at €5.2 bn (12.3mhl / €5.8bn in 2019)
4 France – 6.3 mhl valued at €0.8 bn (7.2mhl / €0.9bn in 2019)
5 Netherlands – 4.7 mhl / €1.3 bn (4.2mhl / €1.2bn in 2019)
6 Canada – 4.5 mhl valued at €1.7 bn (4.2mhl / €1.7bn in 2019)
7 China – 4.3 mhl valued at €1.6 bn (6.1mhl / €2.2bn in 2019)
8 Russia – 3.5 mhl valued at €0.9 bn (4.5mhl / €1.0bn in 2019)
9 Belgium – 3.0 mhl valued at €1.0 bn (3.1mhl / €1.0bn in 2019)
10 Portugal – 2.7 mhl valued at €0.2 bn (2.9mhl / €0.2bn in 2019)
11 Japan – 2.6 mhl valued at €1.4 bn (2.8mhl / €1.6bn in 2019)
12 Sweden – 2.2 mhl valued at €0.7 bn (2.1mhl / €0.7bn in 2019)
The countries that consume the most wine:
1 USA – stable at 33 million hectolitres
2 France – stable at 24.7 mhl
3 Italy – up 7.5% to 24.5 mhl
4 Germany – up 0.2% to 19.8 mhl
5 United Kingdom – up 2.2% to 13.3 mhl
6 China – down 17.4% to 12.4 mhl
7 Russia – up 3% to 10.3 mhl
8 Spain – down 6.8% to 9.6 mhl
9 Argentina – up 6.5% to 9.4 mhl
10 Australia – down 3.7% to 5.7 mhl
11 Portugal – down 0.6% to 4.6 mhl
12 Canada – down 6% to 4.4 mhl
13 Brazil – up 18.4% to 4.3 mhl
14 Romania – down 1.9% to 3.8 mhl
15 Netherlands – down 0.3% to 3.5 mhl
16 Japan – down 0.8% to 3.5 mhl
17 South Africa – down 19.4% to 3.1 mhl
18 Switzerland – down 1.6% to 2.6 mhl
19 Belgium – down 3.1% to 2.6 mhl
20 Austria – up 2.2% to 2.3 mhl
21 Sweden – down 2.3% to 2.2 mhl
22 Czech Republic – up 2% to 2.1 mhl
