Latest export data for Spanish wines from FEV

The Federación Española del Vino has released the export figures for February 2005.
The report made note of the following trends for the first 2 months of 2005 as compared with the same period in 2004:

Overall volume is down by 4.6% to 201.96 million liters (53.4 million US gallons) while value is up by 1.3% to 202.77 million euros (254.08 million US dollars). This trend can be explained by a drop in bulk wine sales (-15%) plus increases in bottled wines, particularly with table wines (+19%) as well as from D.O.s (+7%) .

By value, the main market for Spanish exports continues to be Germany (25% of total exports), but sales here have fallen by 4%. The largest gaining markets among the top 10 destinations are the US (up by 15%) and the UK (up by 12%).

By volume, France continues as the largest consumer of Spanish wine (90% of that is in bulk wines) at 50 million liters (13 million US gallons). The largest increase in the top 10 was a surge in orders from China (+1588%), again mainly in bulk wine.

For D.O. wines, the leaders by volume are, in order, Germany, UK and Switzerland, while in value the leaders are Germany, UK and the US. Indicating that the Germans and the English are the biggest consumers of quality Spanish wines across the board, while the Swiss buy a large amount of lower priced wine and the Americans are spending comparatively more. (This may be an oversimplification since the value change could, in part, be due exchange rate fluctuations in sales made in the currency of the destination market.)