Spanish wine export trends: January to May 2006

The Spanish Wine Federation (FEV, in its Spanish acronym) has just released data on Spanish wine exports for January to May 2006. The main overall recent trends have continued: Spain is exporting less bulk wine, but more D.O. bottled wine, which is commanding higher prices.

In comparison from the same period one year ago, overall volumes are down by 4.6%, but the invoiced value is up by 4.8%, with the average price per liter increasing by 10% to 1.12 euros. Obviously at that price, there is still a lot of bulk wine being shipped: both D.O. and non D.O. bulk shipments were at 269.1 million liters, or 58% of the total still wine exported volume.

The major stand-outs for the period have been: D.O. bottled wines, up by 12% in value, 10% in volume, Cava up by 3.6% in value and 3% in volume, and as was reported previously in this blog the category of slightly sparkling wines, known as vinos de aguja are up an incredible 244% in value and 866% in volume. Admittedly this category is still a minor one at 0.35% of total wine exports, but still that is pretty impressive growth. Somebody somewhere is discovering how refreshing these wines are - perfect for the hot 2006 summer!

The biggest growth per market in the top 10 markets has been as follows:
The US: up 30% in value and 25% in volume, with a majority of product in D.O. bottled wines;
Canada: up 41% in value; China: up 28% in volume, mostly in bulk wines. The US leads the way in overall price, paying 3.76 euros a liter on average, but for some reason Austria is paying 8.59 euros per liter of bulk wines, more than 26 times the average rate paid on bulk. Either Austrian importers are going for super-premium bulk wine (does such a thing exist?), or some crafty exporter has made the deal of the century!