Wine production in the southern hemisphere – short profile

Numbers recently published by the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine)

Acreage:

- Argentina is since long the countries with most land under vine: 240,000 ha. Chile is approaching fast and has reache almost 200,000 ha. The most dramatic increase has been in Australia: 170,000 ha in 2007 from only 70,000 ha in 1995. Followed by South Africa 140,000 ha and Brazil 100,000 ha. New Zealand, that is much talked about has modest 30,000 ha.
- The region now accounts for 11% of world acreage, compared to 7% 20 years ago.

Wine production 2007:

- Argentina: 15 Mhl (stable over the last few years)
- Australia: 10 Mhl (dramatic drop from the almost 15 Mhl made in 2006, after having almost tripled from 5 Mhl in 1995!)
- South Africa: 10 Mhl (steady upwards trend)
- Chile: 8 Mhl (strong upwards trend)
- Brazil: 3 Mhl
- New Zealand: 1.5 Mhl
- The southern hemisphere now makes 18.2% of world wine production, up from 13.3% 20 years ago

In summary: Argentina is biggest but remains on a stable level. Australia shot up like a rocket but hit a wall in 2007 due to the draught and the economic difficulties of the sector. Where to next? South Africa and Chile is also growing strongly but is so far quite a bit behind in volume. The other countries are small producers.

Wine consumption:

- Most countries have falling consumption, Argentina most of all. Australia, though, is growing: almost +50% since 1995, but it far from compensates from the drop in the other countries. Over 20 years the region has contracted from 13.4% of world consumption to 11.6%.

Export

As a consequence, the missing part in the equation is the booming export. All big countries have rapidly growing exports, as does New Zealand!:

- Australia: 8 Mhl exported
- Chile: 6 Mhl
- Argentina: 3.7 Mhl
- South Africa: 3 Mhl
- New Zealand: 0.9 Mhl
- the other countries have very small exports

Today the region accounts for 23.7% (!) of world wine exports, up from a modest 11.7% 20 years ago. It is important to keep in mind though that total world exports have grown over the same period. The picture is therefore not so bleak for e.g. Italy and France: even if they have lost market share their exports have still grown in absolute numbers.

(Source: OIV press conference with Director General Federico Castellucci.)

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