How important are wine exports for a country’s wine sector?
We can compare the amount of wine exported in 2020 to the country’s total production to see how big a portion of all wine made goes on export. This gives an indication of how important export is to the country.
The country exporting the biggest part of its production is New Zealand; 88% goes to another country. It is, of course, regrettable that the New Zealanders are not that keen on their own wine, but the country has a long history of anti-alcohol politics and restrictions. It just barely escaped a period of prohibition. (I can add that New Zealand is also the country with the biggest proportion of “French” grape varieties of all nations, far bigger than France.)
Read all our articles in the Wine Global 2020 series here:
- Global wine production 2020
- The World’s vineyard surface 2020
- How important is wine production to a country?
- The world’s most productive wine producing countries
- World wine consumption in 2020
- Wine consumption per person in 2020
- World wine exports in 2020
- World wine imports in 2020
- Wine exports compared to total production (dependency on exports)
- Wine exports compared to GDP and to total exports
- Average price per litre on export, by country
- Exports in bottle, sparkling, bag-in-box, bulk in 2020
Source: The data presented in this article come from the OIV, The International Organisation of Vine and Wine. Commentary and analysis is BKWine’s.
Exports are also vital for Chile, where 83% go abroad, not least to China, and for Australia.
The country that is keenest on its own wines, drinks most of it themselves, among the big exporters is the USA, exporting only 16%. Perhaps that is because US wines’ price levels tend to be relatively high in other countries?
That France has the second-lowest portion going on export, 29%, is perhaps surprising, being the world’s leading quality wine producer. But presumably, that has to do with that the French do love their wines and that the domestic market is big.
Some smaller countries would have more extreme numbers but are not on the list due to the cut-off number for volume at 2 Mhl. Countries exporting less than that are not included. Switzerland, for example, exports a tiny part of their total production.
The part of wine production that goes on export, by country, in 2020
| # vol | Country | Production 2020 Mhl | Export 2020 Mhl | Export as % of production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Italy | 49.1 | 20.8 | 42% |
| 2 | France | 46.6 | 13.6 | 29% |
| 3 | Spain | 40.7 | 20.2 | 50% |
| 4 | USA | 22.8 | 3.6 | 16% |
| 5 | Argentina | 10.8 | 4.0 | 37% |
| 6 | Australia | 10.6 | 7.5 | 71% |
| 7 | South Africa | 10.4 | 3.6 | 35% |
| 8 | Chile | 10.3 | 8.5 | 83% |
| 9 | Germany | 8.4 | 3.4 | 40% |
| 10 | China | 6.6 | ||
| 11 | Portugal | 6.4 | 3.1 | 48% |
| 12 | Russia | 4.4 | ||
| 13 | Romania | 3.6 | ||
| 14 | New Zealand | 3.3 | 2.9 | 88% |
| 15 | Hungary | 2.4 | ||
| 16 | Austria | 2.4 | ||
| 17 | Greece | 2.3 | ||
| 18 | Brazil | 1.9 | ||
| 19 | Georgia | 1.8 |
Only countries exporting more than 2 Mhl have data shown (so, missing numbers indicates that the volume is less).
# vol – denotes world rank in volume
