April 21: Continuing with the downward trend, world-wide consumption of wine dropped declined for third time in a row to 2.8 percent in 2020 and was at the lowest level since 2002, according to the figures released by Pau Roca, The Director General of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), yesterday at a web Conference at the OIV Headquarters in Paris- entitled State of the Viti-viticultural World. Subhash Arora reports
Covid claimed its victims in wine consumption in most countries depending upon the resilience of the delivery system when travel, hotels and restaurants were badly hit. But most countries with e-commerce systems in place handled the problem more pragmatically, unlike India.
Wine consumption was lower in Spain and Canada by 6.8% and 6% respectively. However, a few countries bucked the trend, with Brazil reporting a whopping increase of 18.4 %, thanks to the e-commerce platform being in place in a short time. Italy had a 7.5% increase while Argentina clocked a 6.5% increase.
World wine exports came down 1.7 % by volume but the drop was higher at 6.7% by value. As might be expected during the troubled year prices were dropped universally. Roca said, ‘We have seen everywhere a drop in price. France lost more than €1 billion in export value.
The Market Internationalisation index rose to 45%, highest so far. This index is arrived by calculating the ratio of the volumes of world wine exports and world wine consumption.This means that on average in 2020, of every 2 bottles of wine consumed in the world about 1 crossed (at least) one border, that is almost half the wine consumed in the world was imported wine.
Wine production managed 1% increase during the Covid-19 year but still lower than the historical high. There was a whopping jump in Spain which increased 21% while France had a jump of 11% Wine production was down 17% in Argentina, 16 % in China and 11-13% in the US, Australia and Hungary.
The Big Three from European Union (France, Italy and Spain) produced 53 % of total wine while the US produced 9% making it the largest non-EU producer of wine. The EU had a total of 63% of the world share.
Total vineyard area continued the steady decline that has been going on for the last 17 years. This was partly because the EU has placed restrictions on new plantations-in fact, they had been giving incentives for uprooting till a few years ago. Spain and France continue to have the biggest surface area. China is the third largest in the vineyard surface area because of huge quantities of eating grapes planted like in India.
India dropped to no. 12 position with 151,000 hA surface area but a very small portion is used to make wine. Grapes are generally table grapes or grown for raisins or grape juice.
India is a member country of OIV but we work on a Financial Year basis (April-March). According to the estimates of delWine, there has been a drop in production of about 5% though consumption has dropped by around 15-20%, primarily due to lockdowns and most restaurants and hotels being closed, though a part of the drop was recovered due to higher sales in Retail. The country is still undergoing a partial lockdown due to the second wave and consumption is going to be affected again unless online platforms are allowed as was seen in Brazil. Currently, most States have allowed home delivery but no online states. Delhi is in a State of Coma with the supplies and deliveries choked.
OIV is the intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature of recognised competence for its work concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, table grapes, raisins and other vine-based products. It comprises 47 Member States including India although it is not a very active member.
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Subhash Arora
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