Not since 1996 has so little wine been drunk in the world as during last year.
At least not if you are to believe a new report from the industry organization OIV, which finds the explanation in the fact that wine has become more expensive as a result of inflation and geopolitical tensions, which have already hit consumers’ purchasing power hard.
In addition, demand for wine fell sharply in China, which is seen as an effect of the country’s economic slowdown. The Portuguese, French and Italians, on the other hand, are still the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.
Reduced consumption
Last year, global wine consumption was 221 million hectoliters, a decrease of 2.6 percent from 2022. One hectoliter is equivalent to 133 standard wine bottles.
Sweden imported 2 million hectoliters of wine last year, a decrease of 7.3 percent from 2022. A quarter was boxed wine, making Sweden one of the world’s largest importers of bag-in-box.
Total world wine production fell by 10 percent last year, according to the OIV, which mainly blames drought, fires, torrential rains, heat and other extreme weather events expected to become more common as a result of climate change. Outbreaks of fungal diseases also cause major problems.
The global wine harvest was the worst since 1961 and the result was even worse than when the OIV made early estimates of the situation in November.
Australia and Italy were worst hit, while wine giant France bucked the trend with a 4 percent increase in harvest.
Biggest challenge
Even if climate-related problems cannot explain the entire production loss, it is the sector’s biggest challenge for the future, according to the OIV head John Barker.
“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant that is often grown in vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he says, according to the AFP news agency.