Spain has pushed both France and Italy out of the way and has become the world’s largest exporter of wine in 2014.
It sent 22.8 million hectolitres abroad last year. But despite this 22% increase, profits fell by 2.2%.
That was due to much of the supply being bulk sales with only small margins.
Surprisingly perhaps, it was France which proved to be the biggest buyer of Spain’s wines, importing 5.8 million hectolitres (one hectolitre is the equivalent of 133 bottles). The French imports rose by a whopping 40% in just one year.
Germany, Portugal and Russia were in the queue behind France to buy Spanish wines.
Some of these countries have been known to bottle the wine and brand it in ways which implies it comes from their own country. It can be cheaper to import than to grow and produce it.
But because it is a low-cost bulk items, it contributes to the image of Spain as a producer of indiscriminate wine, when in fact some of its wines are among the world’s best.
A number of producers are culpable for doing little to market their wines outside of the country, leaving rioja in the position of being virtually the only region well-known outside of Spain.
The bulk wine situation is similar to that of Spain’s large olive oil industry. Italy imports about 40% of Spain’s oil, but rebottles it and sells it as estate-bottled Italian olive oil.
