Portuguese wine exports for the first half of the year totalled 171.5 million litres, worth 452.4 million euros (US$498.2 million).
Wine increased in volume (8.58 percent) and value (1.25 percent) over the same period in 2023, according to ViniPortugal, an interprofessional wine industry association dedicated to promoting Portuguese wines. But the sector recorded a year-on-year decrease in the average price of 6.52 percent, to 2.64 euros per litre. ViniPortugal attributed this to the pressure of excess stock in the global wine market.
France was the primary export market for Portuguese wines, leading in both value (53.4 million euros) and volume (17.5 million litres). Rounding out the top three for value are the US (50.1 million euros) and Brazil (38.9 million euros) while Spain (16.4 million litres) and Angola (15.3 million litres) took the second and third place for volume.
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Frederico Falcão, president of ViniPortugal, said the sector as a whole is dealing with excess stocks and Portuguese wines must demonstrate “competitiveness, resilience and quality” in the international market. He conceded that the reduction in average price is “a challenge.”
A national and global reduction in wine consumption has been compounded by larger than normal harvests in Portugal. ViniPortugal expects similarly large harvests for 2024 owing to the increased productivity of restructured vineyards.
To combat excess, measures have even been implemented at the European level to distil some of the excess wine and use the alcohol for other purposes. The European Commission allocated 15 million euros to Portugal for the project as the situation has reached a point where “there is nowhere to put the wine,” said Portuguese agriculture ministJosé Manuel Fernandes.
