German Wine Sales increase

[Craig Camp]

GERMANY: Wine sales reach €3.47 billion in 2002

21 Mar 2003

Source: just-drinks.com editorial team

Total wine sales in Germany reached €3.47 billion (US$3.69 billion) in 2002, representing a 1% increase from 2001, according to data released by the Deutsches Weininstitut. Wine accounted for 33% of total alcohol expenditure by German consumers in 2002.

In volume terms, wine sales rose by 2% to 11.4m hectolitres but the average price per bottle fell from €3.10 to €2.94.

Domestically-produced wines represented 45.3% of the volume in 2002, down 2.5 percentage points from 2001 but the average price per litre for German wine rose by 1% to €3.36 per litre.

Italian and French wines increased their shares of the German wine market in volume terms, but according to the Institute's data the price per litre for French and Italian wines fell in 2002.

The French share of the market went up 1 percentage point to 15.9%, with the price per litre for French wine falling by 7% to €2.71. Italian wines accounted for 13% of the market in volume terms in 2002, representing a rise of 3 percentage points. The price per litre of Italian wine was reported by the Institute to be 11% lower.

The Institute said it expects wine consumption in Germany to rise by 7.5% in volume and by 8.5% in value terms by 2006.