World wine consumption on the rise: study

Toronto – A new study has found that wine consumption is on the rise globally.

VINEXPO revealed the findings of its 12^th study of the World Wine and Spirits Market with an Outlook to 2018. The U.K.-based International Wine and Spirit Research conducted the study.

The study found that global consumption of still and sparkling wines rose by 2.7 per cent between 2009 and 2013 to reach 2.648 billion nine-Litre cases – the equivalent of more than 31.7 billion bottles.

Looking ahead to 2018, the study says global consumption will experience an accelerated growth of 3.7 per cent, for a total of 2.732 billion nine-Litre cases.

The study says Canada will hold its own, ranking seventh, with a market valued at US$6.1 billion, which should grow by 10.4 per cent by 2018.

But in B.C., the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB), which recently released its statistics, reports that B.C.’s wine industry sales just topped $1 billion for the first time.

Annual B.C. wine sales increased 5.68 per cent to 68.9 million Litres in 2014, says BusinessInVancouver.com. In fact, sales for Canadian-made wines in B.C. are increasing at a faster pace than that for imported wine given that they increased 7.89 per cent to 36.4 million litres, year-over-year, compared with import wine sales, which only increased 3.2 per cent to 32.5 million litres in 2014 compared with 2013.

BCLDB data also shows that the amount of money spent on wine in B.C. increased 7.03 per cent to $1.034 billion in 2014 compared with 2013.

Spending for Canadian-made wine in B.C. rose 8.9 per cent to almost $470 million whereas spending for imported wine increased 5.51 per cent to $564.8 million.

The VINEXPO study says in 2014 Canada became the world’s sixth largest wine importer at 32.7 million cases.

Since 2008 Canadians have shown a growing taste for New World wines such as those from New Zealand (at more than 17.7 per cent), the U.S. (at more than 9.7 per cent) and Chile (at more than 4.8 per cent).

Per capita wine consumption in Canada rose by 0.6 per cent since 2013, and, the study says, the outlook is positive, as consumption is expected to increase by 4.1 per cent to reach 16.4 litres per adult in 2018.