Global wine production down, but prices up

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) has announced a decline in global wine production in 2016, with France’s output dropping most dramatically.

France, the world’s second-biggest wine producer after Italy, lost 3.5 million hectolitres (mhl) in output volume. Bad weather in France and across the world has been blamed for the production decrease. Globally, wine production fell by 3.2% to 267 mhl.

However, while there was a reduction in volume (104 mhl, -1.2%), wine increased in value (29 bn EUR, +2%).

Wine consumption stood at 242 mhl in 2016, having stabilised after the 2008 economic crisis.

With 31.8 mhl of wine consumed in 2016, the United States confirmed its position as the biggest global consumer country since 2011, followed by France (27.0 mhl), Italy (22.5mhl), Germany (20.2 mhl) and China (17.3 mhl).
A significant decrease in consumption of wine in Hungary, Argentina and Romania was compensated by a rise in the United States, China and Italy. Consumption in France and Spain remained stable.

The Director General of the OIV, Jean-Marie Aurand (pictured above), presented information on the potential wine production, assessment of the harvest, and state of the market and international trade in 2016 at the Organisation's headquarters in Paris on April 11.

OIV also reported the size of the global area under vines remained at 7.5 mha in 2016, with China's vineyard surface area continuing to increase (+17 kha), confirming its place as the country with the 2nd biggest vineyard surface area.

Italy (50.9 mhl) confirmed its position as the leading world producer, followed by France (43.5 mhl) and Spain (39.3 mhl). Production levels remained high in the United States (23.9 mhl).

In South American countries and South Africa unfavourable climate conditions weighed on production. Production dropped sharply in Argentina (9.4 mhl), Chile (10.1 mhl), Brazil (1.6 mhl) and South Africa (10.5 mhl).

The Chinese area under vines continued to increase in 2016 (+16.8 kha). In Europe, only the Italian area under vines grew by 8.2 kha. Spain remains a clear leader in terms of the cultivated surface area with nearly a million hectares ahead of China (0.85 mha) and France (0.79 mha).

The OIV said it was buoyed by early estimates of the 2017 harvest in the southern hemisphere, where production has generally been on the up compared with 2016, except for Australia and New Zealand, which have been seen roughly equivalent levels in relation to the previous year.