Which wine-exporting countries stand to profit from the increased demand for New World Wines?
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's analysis World Wine Situation & Outlook (April 2005) provides a pie-chart summary of international trade's leading wine exporting countries.
Italy, France, Spain, Portugal & Germany represent Old World wines which dominated about two-thirds of global wine exports in 2003.
Top Wine Exporters
- Italy ... 21% marketshare of global wine exports
- France ... 19%
- Spain ... 19%
- Australia ... 8%
- Chile ... 6%
- United States ... 6%
- Portugal ... 4%
- Germany ... 4%
- South Africa ... 4%
- Argentina ... 2%
- Other ... 7%.
Wines from Australia, Chile, California, South Africa & Argentina are known as New World wines. These are the fastest-growing category both domestically and in international trade partly because wine drinkers around the world want to experience new wine taste experiences.
Global wine companies like Constellation Brands plan to profit from this trend by buying up vinters from New World Wine regions around the globe.
Top Wine Consumers
According to vinography.com's World of Wine figures for 2003, Europeans are the leading consumers of wine drinking over two-thirds of wine consumed around the world. The United States ranks second at just over 20% of world wine consumption. Asia is a distant third with 6.6%.
Luxembourg, France and Italy finish at the top for per capita wine consumption. Their per capita wine consumption of some 50 liters is almost 7 times America's per capita wine score of about 7.5 liters.
Although wine consumption is tiny in China and India, both countries boast a vast marketplace of potential drinkers. Since joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, China has lowered its tariffs on imported wines from 64% to 11%.
