UK becomes Chile’s top wine importer – The Drinks Business

Chile has seen the value of wine imports to the UK rise 40% in the first quarter of 2024, new data has found, making it the South American country’s top market in terms of value.

According to the OEMV (Observatorio Espanol del Mercado del Vino) the UK has overtaken China and the US in value terms to take the top spot, on the back of the impressive growth.

Overall, Chile increased its wine exports by 9.6% in volume, with valued up 3.3% in the first quarter of 2024. This marks a “significant” improvement on the 2023, which marked one of the worst years for the country for over a decade.

2023 saw the overall values of exports from Chile fall 20% to US$1,525.9 – a loss of $382.6 million on the previous year – with the average price falling by 2.5%, to US$2.24/litre. Volume during 2023 also took a hit, with exports down 18% to 682 million litres (a fall of 149.8 million litres) from 2022.

Last year the market was particularly hit by declines in its two top markets;  China, which saw declines of US$96.1 million dollars;  and the US, which saw a fall of US$21.8 million dollars.

The Chinese market for wine has significantly contracted in recent years – total wine imports in 2023 were around are a third of what they were five years ago, down to 48 million litres, from 688 million litres in 2018. This was despite the opportunities created for wine producing region by the Chinese government imposing tariffs on its largest wine importer,  Australia, in 2020 which were only lifted in March this year. France, for example proved to be the biggest beneficiaries (gaining a market share of 49%), but Chile also gained and grew its market share in China to 17%.

The 2024 vintage – despite being one of the latest and longest in recent times – is set to be one to remember, according to the country’s winemakers. Eduardo Jordan, winemaker for Miguel Torres Chile, told the drinks business that it was “a really spectacular harvest.”

“We had excellent quality with high natural acidity, low potential alcohols, beautiful colour, fine tannins and great freshness. I think it is one of the greatest vintages of our time,” he told Amanda Barnes.