The recovery was recorded in the first 8 months of 2015 of the exports of the countries of the wine “New World”, with growth rates higher than those of the major European exporters, France, Italy and Spain.
The Wine Monitor shows strongly growing volumes of wine exported to countries in the southern hemisphere of the world. In particular, exports from New Zealand grew by 13%, Chile by 8%, Argentina by 4% and Australia by 2%. The weakening of these countries' currencies against the US dollar and the euro is one of the factors behind this newfound competitiveness: between December 2014 and August 2015, the New Zealand dollar depreciated by almost 19% against the US while the Australian peso lost 13%, as did the Chilean peso and the South African rand.
Negative numbers, however, come from the European countries of good wine: -3% of Italy and -2% of France. The only Community producer that manages to keep up with the New World of wine is Spain with a +14%, thanks above all to an increase of +18% in the quantities exported of bulk wine.
"The growth in Southern Hemisphere wine exports seems to mark a turning point after the setback in 2014, when the top 6 New World exporters – Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa to which Argentina and the United States must be added, even if longer-term producers – had experienced an overall drop in quantities sold of over 6% compared to the previous year" points out Denis Pantini, Head of Wine Monitor.
In the case of the "Old World", these first 8 months of 2015 show a joint growth of 3% in exported volumes for the top 3,5 European exporters, driven above all by sparkling wines (+7%, above all thanks to Italy which is growing by 16%) and bulk (+5%), where in this case the merit is all of Spain (+18%, as mentioned above) which, among other things, continues to sell at ever lower average prices.
It is above all what allows the countries of the southern hemisphere to press on the accelerator of exports the competitive devaluation of local currencies. But that's not the only reason. To this must be added the activism of governments towards free trade agreements and companies on the trade promotion front. Just think of the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) just concluded between the United States and the countries of the Far East (including Singapore and Vietnam), Japan and Oceania, but also the Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) reached between Australia and China which provides, among other things, the progressive reduction of import duties starting this year on wine exported to China until their complete elimination in 2019 when, on the contrary, our wines pay a tax of 14% if bottled and 20% in the case of bulk.
