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The wine industry is now threatened by cost increases for energy, transport and materials. This is the core statement of the ProWein Business Report 2022 presented by Prof. Simone Loose, head of the Institute for Wine and Beverage Management at Geisenheim University. For the report, 2,455 experts from 47 countries were surveyed, among them 567 producers and 592 importers and traders from Germany.
85 percent of the respondents see the price increases for energy, glass and paper as a strong threat to their companies. Of the wine producers, 62 percent are strongly or very strongly affected by rising energy costs, especially in Spain, Austria, France and Portugal. Eleven percent no longer produce certain products because of this, especially those with small quantities and large production costs. Seven percent of retailers have shortened their opening hours to save energy.
In addition, 66 percent of the businesses expect lower profits than in the previous year. 14 percent of them fear that they will even slip into the red because of higher costs, but they can still compensate for the losses with existing reserves. Seven per cent are currently at risk of closing down.
The disruption of global supply chains has affected 66 per cent of the companies. The higher costs for transport and handling reduced the profit margin for 59 per cent of the respondents. 29 per cent of wine producers and exporters even lost sales and customers because transport costs made the planned business unprofitable. This mainly affected wine exporters from Australia, Argentina and Chile. The supply bottlenecks for material, spare parts and auxiliary materials were felt by almost all market participants, 92 percent of the producers suffered from delivery delays for glass bottles.
Wine professionals and producers also remain pessimistic for 2023: after 35 per cent a year ago, 55 per cent now fear a reluctance to buy as a result of the possible economic slowdown. Producers in particular are assuming a significant deterioration in the situation.
Nevertheless, only one third of the companies want to stop or reduce their investments, especially producers from Germany (57 percent) and Australia (67 percent). Thus, the online business is to be expanded further. More than 80 percent of the export-oriented producers from Portugal, Australia, Spain and France want to open up new sales markets at home and abroad. This is less true in countries that are strongly focused on their home markets, such as Germany (36 percent) and Austria (50 percent). Wines with little alcohol and dealcoholised wines are seen by 33 and 24 percent of the industry as sales trends for 2023.
(al / Source: Messe Düsseldorf; Photo: 123rf)