2022/2023 Wine in the EU: productions increase, exports stable, but per capita consumption down

The picture of wine in the European Union, according to the short-term outlook published recently by the Agriculture Commission, on the basis of data from Eurostat as well as what Member States have communicated, showed that wine production has increased slightly during the two-year period 2022/2023, exports have grown in value but quantity has remained stable, and per capita consumption is decreasing. Looking at production, the report explained the European total should reach, as estimated, 158 million hectoliters (+3.3%on an annual basis). This increase is due to recovery in France (+19%) and Spain (+1.3%), and decreases in Italy (-1%) and Portugal (-8%).
Per capita consumption paradoxically increased in quantity in 2021-2022, but should decrease again, stopping at 22.5 liters per person, that is -1.3% on the average over the last 5 years. The European outlook emphasized that the decrease will be especially detrimental to red wines, as almost all market studies now claim.
In terms of exports, in the two-year period 2021/2022, volumes were practically stable, while values grew +12% (due to the effect of growth in PDO productions, which compensated for the reduced quantity of PGI productions). In 2022 /2023, substantial stability is expected compared to the previous harvest, totaling 32 million hectoliters (+3% more, however, than the average over the last 5 years).
Imports, instead, should decrease even more, and the drop is estimated at -4%, for 6.6 million hectoliters (-14% on the five-year average), continuing a long-term downward trend.
The overall result is that 2022/23 closing stocks are expected to continue at high levels (about 170 million tons, more than one harvest). However, the European Commission pointed out that they would remain below the record level at the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic (2020/21).