Portuguese wine exports receive multi million Euro boost
The Portuguese wine industry has put aside 13 million Euros to boost its country’s wine abroad, with nearly a quarter of that sum being dedicated to the US.
Wine association ViniPortugal will contrbute 6.5 million Euros of the total investment, which will also focus on boosting sales in other markets including Canada, China, Russia, Switzerland and Poland under the marketing umbrella “Wines of Portugal’ “We are already recognized with respect as an important player in traditional trade, with a consistent and sustainable quality ranked ninth in the world, ranking behind New Zealand and ahead of countries like South Africa and Argentina,” said ViniPortugal president Jorge Monteiro. In the past five years volume exports of Portuguese wines have increased by over a quarter, thanks to increasing sales in destinations such as Germany, the Uk and Canada. The resurgence has been driven by growth in Portuguese DOP white wines, which increased more than 40% from 197,587 hectolitres in 2011 to 278,161 hectolitres last year. Exports of red wine grew by more than 25,000 hectolitres, from 219,556 in 2011 to 245,717 in 2016. The US remains the most important export market for Portugal, with annual compound growth by volume increasing by 9.2% between 2011 and 2016. After the US, the top destinations for Portuguese wines include France, the UK, Germany, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Angola and Switzerland, representing nearly 64% of the volume of total exports, and a 99.4% increase in value. Russia is the fastest growing market for Portuguese wine exports, which have increased from just 130 hl five years ago to over 1,000hl last year. Monteior expects the total value of Portguese wine exports to hit 800 million Euros this year.