Spanish Agriculture Ministry announces new wine plan and misses the point

The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture on Monday released their new plan for the wine sector. The publication "Vino 2010" calls for spending 133 million euros over the next four years to create a market observatory to track market trends, support worker training and promote the Spanish wine brand at home and overseas.


All laudable (but vague) goals, which are not very realistic if what they want to do is to help Spanish producers continue gain marketshare overseas. According to the OIV, Spain has the most area of land under vine (about 15% of the entire world's wine grapes), but is only the third leading producer in terms of volume, after France and Italy. This means that productivity is not as high as it could be. But the more serious problem in Spain is that domestic consumption has been dropping: from 18 million hectoliters in the 1980's to 10 million in 2006. Exports are up, but are still mainly reliant on bulk sales. In total, the gap between production and consumption is about 7 million hectoliters, which is sent for distilling into pure alcohol.


Nowhere in the Ministry's plans are incentives for reducing the over abundance of wine, or even replacing the vast acreages of insipid Airen with grapes capable of producing better wines, something the industry is starting to do, but needs more incentives to do more.

The Ministry apparantly believes that every wine is a good wine and deserves to be sold. This is a mistake. It should be trying to reduce the glut of cheap bulk wines and focus on building quality and promotion. 133 millions could help reducing the oversupply of poor quality vines, as well as help the export-ready producers that need a boost to promote their wines overseas. In short, a missed opportunity.