Status of world wine: vineyard surface, wine production & consumption, import-export | Per on Forbes

2015 is a year that did not present any great surprises in the overall picture of the global wine production and trade. Vineyard area is stable, production is stable, consumption is stable, and world trade in wine continues to grow. Decidedly un-sexy and headline un-friendly.

A few things can be worth pointing out. The USA is again the world’s biggest wine consuming country in 2015 so solidifying its position as the world’s biggest wine market. It is also one of the world’s biggest wine importer although it also quite a lot of wine domestically. France and Italy are number 2 and 3 in wine consumption.

China is again the country with the world’s second biggest vineyard surface area in 2015 having overtaken France in 2014, a fari bit behind the number one, Spain. (This was, by the way, wildly misreported in media when China overtook France as if China had become the second biggest wine producer. That was a misunderstanding of the statistics. China is number to in vineyard surface area, but the grapes can be used for many other things than wine, e.g. eating.)

Italy was the country producing the most wine in 2015, slightly more than France. (And China in 9th place in wine production.)

France is, however, by far the biggest wine exporter, counted in value, followed by Italy and Spain. In volume the order is reversed: Spain exports the most wine, followed by Italy and France.

The biggest markets are Germany and the UK in volume, or counted in value the USA and the UK.

Read much more on these statistics in Per’s article on Forbes, The Global Wine Business In 2015: Stable.

Here’s the introduction.

The latest numbers of the world wine industry has just been announced by the OIV. Here are the key points for the development in 2015, compared to 2014:

– The world’s vineyard area is almost unchanged, at 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres).

– The global wine production is marginally up, to 274 million hectolitres (up 2.2%).

– The consumption of wine world-wide is stable at 240 million hectolitres.

– The wine trade: the world of wine is becoming increasingly international with 43% of all wine is consumed in another country than where it is produced.

In other words, 2015 is a year of stability and consolidation, without any big surprises in the world wine industry. But let’s take a closer look at some of the data.

Read Per’s full article on BKWine on Forbes.

You can also watch the video of the whole press conference at the OIV where the global wine statistics were presented.

And here are the tables with the rankings:

Countries with the biggest vineyard surface area:

1. Spain, 1,021 (thousand hectares)
2. China, 830
3. France, 786
4. Italy, 682
5. Turkey, 497
6. USA, 419
7. Argentina, 225
8. Portugal, 217
9. Iran (*)
10. Chile, 211
11. Romania, 192
12. Australia, 149
13. South Africa, 130

The top countries for wine production in 2015 were:

1. Italy, 49.5 Mhl, which is +12% compared to 2014
2. France, 47.5, +2%
3. Spain, 37.2, -6%
4. USA, 22.1, +1%
5. Argentina, 13.4, -12%
6. Chile, 12.9, +28%
7. Australia, 11.9, 0%
8. South Africa, 11.2, -2%
9. China, 11, -5%
10. Germany, 8.9, -4%
11. Portugal, 6.7, +8%

Here’s the list of the world’s top wine consuming countries in 2015:

1. USA, 31 Mhl, +1% on 2014
2. France, 27.2, -1.2%
3. Italy, 20.5, +0.3%
4. Germany, 20.5, +1.1%
5. China, 16, +3.2%
6. UK, 12.9, +2.4%
7. Argentina, 10.3, +3.2%
8. Spain, 10, +1.3%
9. Russia, 8.9, -7%
10. Australia, 5.4, -1%

Here are the biggest wine exporters counted in value, in millions of euros in 2015:

1. France, 8,244 M euro
2. Italy, 5,353
3. Spain, 2,641
4. Chile, 1,650
5. Australia, 1,459
6. USA, 1,395
7. New Zealand, 963
8. Germany, 953
9. Portugal, 738
10. Argentina, 737
11. South Africa, 629

And the biggest exporters counted in volume, millions of hectolitres in 2015:

1. Spain, 24 Mhl
2. Italy, 20
3. France, 14
4. Chile, 8.8
5. Australia, 7.4
6. South Africa, 4.2
7. USA, 4.2
8. Germany, 3.6
9. Portugal, 2.8
10. Argentina, 2.7
11. New Zealand, 2.1

Here are the world’s biggest wine importing countries in 2015, measured in volume, millions of hectolitres:

1. Germany, 15.1 Mhl
2. UK, 13.6
3. USA, 11
4. France, 7.8
5. China, 5.6
6. Canada, 4.1
7. Russia, 4

And the biggest wine importers, counted in value, millions of euros, in 2015:

1. USA, 4,855 million euros
2. UK, 3,915
3. Germany, 2,466
4. China, 1,840
5. Canada, 1,618
6. Japan, 1,319

All numbers come from the OIV press conference as presented by Jean-Marie Aurand on April 18, 2016. Much more details and statistics can be found on the OIV site.