|
|
The structural change of German wineries continues unabated. As the German Wine Institute (DWI) reported on the basis of current data from the Federal Statistical Office, the number of wine-growing estates fell by 17 percent between 2010 and 2016 to a current total of 16,898. However, the total German vineyard area of around 100,000 hectares has remained constant because the abandoned vineyards have been taken over by existing wineries. As a result, the average farm size of German wineries had increased from 4.8 to 5.9 hectares in this period.
According to the DWI, the micro-enterprises with less than one hectare of vineyard area were particularly affected by the structural change. Between 2010 and 2016, they have decreased by 29 percent. The existing 4,300 or so micro-enterprises currently make up only a quarter of the total number of farms.
In recent years, many wineries between one and ten hectares in size have given up. In 2010, around 11,500 of these farms cultivated 45 per cent of the total area under vines, in 2016 there were only around 9,500 farms with a 37 per cent share of vineyards.
This is why wineries with more than ten hectares of vineyards play a much greater role today. In the same period their number has risen by 300 to around 3,100, with 890 of them even cultivating more than 20 hectares of vineyards. These larger wineries currently cultivate around 60 per cent of the total German vineyard area.
(uka / Photo: German Wine Institute)