17-Sep-2024 Last updated on 17-Sep-2024 at 12:01 GMT
The European Union is the ‘biggest vineyard in the world’ – producing 64% of the world’s wine by volume and 70% by value. But it’s no secret that the wine industry worldwide faces a set of hugely challenging pressures: ranging from climate change to a long-term decline in wine consumption. Europe’s wine body – the CEEV – sets out a strategic plan of action.
Grape and wine producers face ‘critical’ challenges due to rising production costs. Labor can be hard to come by.
Then there’s the threat of climate change: with rising temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events affecting harvest times, crop sizes and grape quality – creating a headache to plan around at best, and a catastrophic loss of harvest at worst (global wine production was down 9.6% in 2023, attributed to extreme climatic events).
France, Italy and Spain are the world’s top wine producers: with these three together making up a whopping 47% of global wine production. But 2023’s wine production figures illustrate the challenges: while France managed to grow production 4.4%, Italy and Spain both saw volumes plunge 23% and 22% respectively.
And wine is in a long-term structural decline. The category has always relied on older drinkers, and has done little to attract younger drinkers who are much more interested in trending categories such as RTD alcohol and craft beer.
