World wine imports recovered in the first quarter of 2021, after the losses registered in 2020, especially in value, affected by the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. A market in which the United States remains the world’s leading importer of wine in value, and Germany in volume.
This is deduced from the recent report Main World Wine Markets – March 2021 published by the Spanish Wine Market Observatory (OeMv) from the analysis of data from more than eighty countries offered by Customs (GTA), which indicate that the growth in the first quarter of this year they were +2.4% in value -up to 6,993.5 million euros- and +1% in volume -2,418.1 million liters-, with average prices also on the rise (+ 1.4%), up to € 2.89 / liter.
World wine trade
This means that in the first quarter of 2021 world wine trade increased by 164.5 million euros and 24 million liters, an evolution that improves the positive data corresponding to the year to March 2021 – between April 2020 and March 2021—), which stood at 10,337.2 million liters (+33.9 million), worth 29,907.7 million euros (-1,549.7 million).
By markets, the recovery seen in the first quarter of 2021 can be seen in some of those included among the thirteen main markets, such as Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark or Switzerland, but significant growth is also recorded in other markets not included within this group, as is the case of the Ivory Coast, Hong Kong, South Korea, Italy or Portugal.
In this sense, in the year-on-year to March 2021, the United States remains the world’s leading investor in wine, despite ceasing to spend 1,025.2 million euros (-18%) in these twelve months, to stand at 4,645.1 million euros. However, in terms of volume, it is Germany that leads the world ranking, with 1,446.7 million liters (-1.7%), closely followed by the United Kingdom, with 1,445.4 million liters (+6, 7% or 90.6 million liters more). Above one billion liters, we also find the United States with 1,207.2 million (-2.8%). In these twelve months, in addition to the fall in the United States, the losses recorded by China (-556.7 million euros and -175.2 million liters), France (-119.1 million euros and -111.4 million liters) and Japan (-274.2 million euros and -32.2 million liters).
Regarding future forecasts, in the opinion of the OeMv experts, the most probable thing is that the coming months will already be positive for the world wine trade, as the comparison is made with the worst months of the world crisis, those of April and may.