The EU has invited representatives of member states to join a wine-policy group to discuss challenges and opportunities for the sector.
The European Commission first announced plans to create a group in May.
The so-called High-Level Group on Wine Policy has been described as a “forum” that will address macro challenges including declining consumption and climate change, and “explore possible solutions”.
The group will meet at least three times and is expected to deliver conclusions and recommendations for future policy by the beginning of 2025.
“Over the past two decades, the EU wine sector has been a success story. Framed by a comprehensive regulatory system, the EU has been leading in the world, with exports that tripled in value over that period,” the Commission’s agriculture and rural-development department said in a statement last week.
“Despite this success, and its significant contribution to EU GDP, the sector is now facing significant challenges due to a long-term decline of domestic consumption, a shift in consumer preferences, and an unstable and less globalised international context affecting our key export markets.
“In addition, the sector faces increasingly unpredictable production conditions and harvests due to climate change.”
The EU estimates its wine sector creates 31 billion full-time jobs and contributes around €130bn ($141.84bn) to its GDP. It said EU member states produce 60% of the world’s wine, consume 48% and export 60% of the world’s wine in value terms.
Falling EU wine consumption
France is Europe’s largest consumer of wine and second-largest in the world, drinking 24.4m hectoliters in 2023 – 2.4% less than 2022.
The country made just over a fifth of the world’s wine – exceeding its five-year average by 8.3% – in 2023. But winemakers are now tackling oversupplies and falling consumption – in recent years the French government has provided support to wineries to destroy excess stock and pull up vines.
In Italy, consumption fell in 2023 but the number of drinkers did not, according to the Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) Observatory.
In 2023, the country had an estimated 29.4 million wine drinkers – “stable” on 2022 – while the number of daily drinkers fell 400,000 to 11.7 million, according to analysis by the UIV, using data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT).
ISTAT data suggested the number of wine drinkers in Italy has actually increased 2% since 2011 – led by growing interest from women. However, the UIV noted “profound signs of changing habits”, with drinkers becoming “more responsible”. “New wine drinkers” are also less category loyal, the UIV suggested, often “flirting” with other beverages such as apéritifs.
In Germany, consumption also fell last year from 19.9 litres per person between 1 August 2022 to 21 July 2023, to 19.2 litres in the same period of 2023.
“The changes in wine drinking habits in Germany is due to demographic change and changes in consumer behaviour, as well as the general loss of purchasing power due to the increased cost of living,” the German Wine Institute said at the time.
Falling wine consumption is not an EU-specific issue – global wine consumption has been dropping gradually since 2007.
Last year, global wine consumption dropped 2.6% to 221m hectolitres compared to 2022, according to the International Organisation Of Vine and Wine’s (OIV) annual report on the global wine trade in 2023.
This trend was driven by China, where approximately 24.7% less wine consumed in 2023 compared to 2022.
Some industry experts say a lack of branding could be behind falling global wine consumption. Laurent Delauney, owner of Delaunay Vins et Domaines wine group in France, told Just Drinks the appellation-focused business model has lost the country 14% of its global market share in the last two decades.
