On the world market of bulk wine, Great Britain collapses, the USA grows, Germany is the leader

The world bulk wine market has experienced the first four months of 2021 of enormous changes, compared to what happened a year ago. As told by the data from the customs of the different countries, analyzed by “Bulk Wine Club”, if in 2020 Great Britain, in view of Brexit and possible duties on imports, had accumulated important stocks, in the first four months of 2021 imports of bulk wine collapsed by 14.2% in volume and 18.7% in value.

With a turnover of 159.6 million euros, Great Britain is still the first country in terms of turnover, while in quantity, with 139.4 million liters (23 less than in the first four months of 2020), it is overtaken in third place by the United States, which, on the other hand, imported 11.2% (+14 million liters) more bulk wine. Even in terms of spending, no one in absolute terms has grown more than the USA: +16.4% (equal to +18.7 million euros), to 132.8 million euros.

In terms of volumes, the world bulk wine market is still dominated by Germany, which, in the first four months of 2021, imported 258 million liters (+1%), whereas France, in second place with 144 million liters of imported bulk wine, saw a drop in the same period of -14.5%, equal to 25 million liters less, just like Great Britain. In terms of values, instead, Germany, which lost in the first four months of the year 3.9%, stops just behind Great Britain, with 154 million euros of bulk wine imported.

In terms of average prices, the United States was the only one of the top four importers of bulk wine in the world to have purchased at higher prices (up 4.7%, to 0.95 euros per liter), while in the United Kingdom the average price fell by 5% (to 1.14 euros per liter), as in Germany (0.60 euros per liter), and in France average prices fell by as much as 16% (to 0.42 euros per liter). Australia, on the other hand, went from being the ninth market in the world for bulk wine to the fifth, in terms of value, with a growth of +32%, reaching 32.8 million euros, and in thirteenth place for volume, with just over 15 million liters (+29.7%), for a purchase price that reached 2.15 euros per liter, given that Australia is very focused on New Zealand bulk wine, a product with a very high added value.

Portugal (+21.4%) and Italy (+58.4%), both producing countries, consolidated their position as the fifth and sixth largest importers in the world in terms of volume, with a much worse performance in terms of value: -15.7% for Italy and -4.3% for Portugal, because the increase in volumes is linked to Spanish bulk wine, which commanded a very low average price. China, on the other hand, ended the first four months of 2021 as the seventh largest market in the world for bulk wine, with a growth of 2% in terms of volume, but also a -14% in terms of value. The new tariffs adopted by China at the end of 2020 against Australian wines (over 100% of the value of imported wine) led to the near disappearance of bulk wine purchases from Canberra, marking the figure for the first four months of 2021 for the Chinese market, which is nevertheless showing signs of recovery after a terrible 2020.

Then there are other markets, secondary but however interesting to record, both as trends and as absolute numbers, starting from Canada (-9.1%), Japan (-22.4%) and Belarus (-14.5%), which significantly reduced bulk wine imports. Stable, instead, the data related to Belgium and Czech Republic, with Switzerland which, in the first four months of 2021, imported a little less (-2.6%) but spent much more (+14.5%). Also up were Sweden and Ivory Coast, a player not to be underestimated, because in relative terms it is the country that has increased its imports the most, both in volume (+83%) and in value (+62%) among the top 20 world markets for bulk wine imports.

It deserves a separate analysis the vertical collapse of imports of Spain, producing country and basically exporter, which a year ago acquired important volumes at low cost from Argentina, thus recording, in the first four months of 2021, a -88%, and therefore passing from 46 to 5.3 million liters purchased. For different reasons, Russia is no longer among the top 20 markets in the world, slipping to 31st place, with just 1.66 million liters, after a 90% drop, because of the new wine law passed by Moscow and in force from mid-2020, which restricts bulk wine purchases from abroad.