France, Italy and Spain lead the world shipments. But wine “weighs” more in Georgia

The podium of the countries that export more wine, in value, is always the same: France, Italy and Spain - waiting for the 2021 figures - in 2020 sent together just over 20 billion dollars worth of wine around the world. A decidedly large share, but that does not tell the whole story about the specific weight of wine exports in relation to the national economy and overall exports. As emerges from the figures compiled by Aawe - American Association of Wine Economists, wine represents, with 9.97 billion dollars, 2.04% of French exports, which overall amount to 488.6 billion dollars. The specific weight of wine shipments on Italian exports is even lower: $7.19 billion is worth 1.45% of total exports, which amount to $496 billion. Similarly, the $3.06 billion of wine shipped from Spain represents 0.98% of Spain’s total exports, worth $312.1 billion.

Curiously, but not surprisingly, there are countries for which wine has a decidedly higher weight on the balance of trade. In this special ranking, first place goes to Georgia: in what is historically the vineyard of the former USSR, wine exports are worth 210.3 million dollars, representing 6.29% of all exports (3.3 billion dollars). In second place there is Moldova, which exported $134.4 million in 2020, accounting for 5.45% of the country’s exports ($2.5 billion). Also on the podium, there is New Zealand, the seventh-largest exporter in absolute value, with $1.3 billion worth of wine shipped, which is worth 3.36% of total exports, or $38.9 billion. At position no. 4 there is Montenegro: its $12.5 million worth of wine shipped abroad represents 3.06% of national exports ($400 million). Another big name, Chile, at position no. 5, with $1.821 billion of wine shipped, 2.48% of the $73.5 billion total exports, followed by France and, this is a surprise, Togo, at position no. 7, which exported $18.3 million of wine in 2020, accounting for 1.88% of the West African country’s total exports.