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The sale of German wines abroad has developed positively in the past year. According to the German Wine Institute (DWI), the volume of wine exported increased by three percent to 1.04 million hectolitres compared to 2018.
In contrast, the value of exported wines had fallen slightly by 0.6 per cent to €305 million and the average price had dropped by eleven cents to €2.93 per litre. "This development is primarily due to the high-yield 2018 vintage, which followed the exceptionally low-yield 2017 vintage. Due to the larger range of wines on offer, the highest average export price for our wines to date could not be maintained in the fiercely contested export markets," explained DWI Managing Director Monika Reule.
The USA, Germany's most important wine export market, also declined in 2019. This was also due to the decline in wine consumption in the world's largest wine market, which first became apparent in 2018 after many years of growth. For German wine exporters, this resulted in a four percent drop in exported wine volumes to 164,000 hectoliters. At the same time, the decline in sales fell by nine percent to 65 million euros.
The US trade tariffs of 25 per cent on German wines introduced in October 2019 had not yet had an impact on the overall annual balance, but would have a significant negative impact in the course of this year.
The abolition of wine import duties in Japan as a result of the JEFTA free trade agreement with the EU, which came into force in February 2019, had a positive effect on German wine exports. This year, German wine exporters in Japan were able to achieve a 17 percent increase in volume and a 13 percent increase in value.
Exports of German wines to Scandinavia and Denmark had developed positively in 2019. To these four countries, 182,000 hectolitres worth 56 million euros had been exported, representing an increase of four percent in value and two percent in volume.
In China last year, the average price had succeeded in bucking the trend and rising by 35 cents to €5.17 per litre. As a result, the value of wine exports to the fifth most important German export market rose by two percent to € 17 million. At the same time, however, the export volume had fallen by five percent to 33,000 hectolitres.
(uka / Photo: German Wine Institute)