Decanter World Wine AwardsChina wine drinkers increase, UK biggest importer: new figures
- Wednesday 12 January 2011
According to the latest figures from International Wine and Spirit Research (IWSR), commissioned by Vinexpo, consumption of wine by China and Hong Kong increased by over 100% between 2005 and 2009, from 46.9m to 95.9m cases.
The organisation predicts that this figure will increase a further 20% by 2014, to 126.4m cases.
In terms of domestic production of wine, China is set to increase by 77% over the next four years, from an average 72m cases to 128m cases.
Those wishing to take advantage of this burgeoning market should remember that 90% of the wine drunk in China is domestically produced, Vinexpo chairman Xavier de Eizaguirre said at a press conference in London today
France, Italy and Spain remain the world’s biggest producers of wine, accounting for just under half of the world’s production of 3bn cases.
However, by 2014 these countries’ production is expected to decline by between one and seven percent.
This is due mainly to more efficient management of vineland, grubbing up of unprofitable vineyards, and concentration on quality by reduction of yields, Robert Beynat, Vinexpo chief executive, said.
The only countries to increase production will be Argentina by over 13%, Chile by 8%, South Africa by 7%, and China.
While the US will be the world’s biggest consumer of wine by 2012, with over 300m cases taking over from Italy at the top of the table, the UK is the world’s largest importing nation both by value and volume.
Britons spend more in total on still and sparkling wine than the French: Britain imported 1.77bn bottles in 2010, to a value of £8.6bn.
However, in terms of per capita consumption we are only tenth in the table.
In an anomaly, Britain consumes more white wine per capita than any other country: 44% of all wine drunk. By contrast, consumption of red wine has declined 8% over the last five years and is forecast to decrease more by 2014.
At the same time, the British are among the world’s most enthusiastic rosé drinkers: we are the fourth largest market for rosé, consuming 10% of the world’s total production.
As consumers, Russia, the US and China are expected to show the most growth over the next four years, increasing consumption by 20.7m cases in China, 27m cases in the US and 5.5m cases in Russia.
Of the 3bn cases, or 36bn bottles, produced worldwide, a quarter is exported. Vinexpo estimates that one in four bottles is drunk in a country in which it was not made. This figure is expected to increase.
Have your say!
Patrick W Fegan
October 28 16:51
"In terms of domestic production of wine, China is set to increase by 77% over the next four years, from an average 72m cases to 128m cases."
How much of the current 72 million case production is wine made solely from Chinese-grown grapes?
If you accept most estimates, only 10% of China's vineyard is planted to wine grapes. At that 72 million case figure -- and assuming that ALL of the 48,600 HA of wine grapes in the ground in 2010(10% of the 486,000 HA planted in the country per the OIV) were bearing-- that's almost a 135 HL/HA average production rate.
JS
January 17 15:38
£8.6bn is still an unqualified figure and shouldn't be used without an explanation. There is a poor standard of journalism being demonstrated here; I don't usually read the majority of the trade wine press as its mostly sycophantic nonsense supporting the burgeoning far east market or the latest bottle of blah blah '82 that's reached a record auction price. Not forgetting of course giving a good write up to anyone else who are likely to invite the publishers to a big lunch with something nice to wash it down with; but isn't that life in a nutshell or more to the point is that why these hacks don't or can't work in mainstream news journalism because they would be fired immediately for demonstrating a lack of impartiality?
Edward Hayward-Broomfield
January 13 13:00
"Britons spend more in total on those styles than the French: Britain imported 1.77bn bottles of still and sparkling wine in 2010, to a value of £8.6bn."
Given that UK taxes are much higher than local taxes in France, is this figure of £8.6bn based on a unit cost of sale price (which includes UK Duty + VAT, warehousing and distribution + retail margin) or unit net production cost?
Tim Clark
January 13 12:18
Don't mean to be too pedantic, but in what universe does four-year growth from 96m to 126m count as "exponential"?