German wine exporters were also affected by the worldwide economic crisis in 2009, although the impact was less severe than anticipated. According to data issued by the German Wine Institute/Mainz, both volume and value of exports declined in 2009 by six and eight percent, respectively.
“In addition to extremely difficult market conditions, the strong Euro added to the financial burden. Nevertheless, with a total export volume of some 200 million liters of wine valued at 394 million Euros, we’re still exporting at a level comparable with 2007,” explained the wine institute’s managing director, Monika Reule, just prior to the international wine trade fair ProWein in Düsseldorf (21 - 23 March).
In the USA, Germany’s most profitable export market for wine, the total value of wine imports declined by some 13 percent compared with 2008, primarily due to the unfavorable Euro exchange rate, which affected all Euro-based countries that produce wine. Reule estimates that “compared with other European competitors, German wines fared fairly well, in that there was ‘only’ a decline of ten percent in terms of value and eight percent in volume.”
Conditions in the British market are somewhat contradictory: on the one hand, German wine sales (volume) grew by 33 percent in the highly popular £5 - £6 price category (Germany was top performer among all imports); at the same time, the average price per liter remains relatively low and sales in the < £3 category have declined considerably. Viewed within the “big picture” of the overall difficult economic times, German wine exports have declined 22 percent in value and 19 percent in volume.
“Despite these setbacks, we must continue to move forward by promoting quality rather than quantity,” says Reule. “We’ve been able to convince professionals and opinion leaders that our wines truly offer high quality. It will take time, however, for this message to reach consumers on a large scale.” Last year in Great Britain, German wines profited from the trend there toward lighter, fruit-driven wines with a low alcohol content – the type of wines for which production conditions in Germany are perfect.
In Gemany’s third most important export market, The Netherlands, there was a noticeable increase in sales value and volume (12 and 10 percent, respectively) in 2009. In the meantime, exports to this neighboring country are worth 50 million Euros.
Last year, double-digit growth in the value of German wine exports was also posted in smaller markets, such as Ireland and Poland (42 and 29 percent, respectively). With a one-percent increase in sales value in Norway, German wine exporters were market leaders in the white wine category, and once again clearly outdistanced their closest competitors, the French.
In all, the wine institute’s managing director summed up the current market position of German wine on a positive note, saying: “In light of the growing international esteem for our wines, not least because of their quality – and particularly that of the current 2009 vintage – I am confident that we’ll see positive growth in our wine exports in tandem with an overall improvement in the global economy.”
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