Vineyards and wine between 1995 and 2019: twenty-five years of change in world wine production, markets and consumption

Abstract

Wine production consistently exceeds wine consumption on a global scale, which explains why the wine market is highly demanding, competitive and increasingly international. This paper quantifies the changes (between 1995 and 2019) in wine consumption, production and the international wine market. Traditionally, the international wine sector was managed from Europe, mainly by a group of countries (Spain, France, Italy and Portugal) that concentrated most of the vineyards, production and international trade. Since the end of the 20th century, several countries (USA, Canada, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand) have made strong inroads into the sector, increasing their vineyard surface area and having a significant and growing presence in international markets. On the other hand, other countries (China, Russia, Brazil, India, the Netherlands, Japan, etc.) are emerging in wine consumption. All this has changed the geographical distribution of vineyards and wine production, moving progressively from the "Old World" to the "New World". In 1961, Europe accounted for almost 69% of the world's vineyards, whereas in 2019 it will account for only 50%. On the other hand, wine imports and exports doubled between 1995 and 2019, while the number of wine-producing and wine-consuming countries is increasing. The globalisation of the wine market has driven changes in wine production and winemaking systems, as well as the regulation of international trade to take into account competition from non-EU wines, issues that simply discussed in this paper.