Extreme weather leads to worst wine harvest in 62 years
Published: Thursday, Apr 25th 2024, 21:41
Back to Live Feed
Global wine production fell by ten percent last year. According to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), it was the world's worst wine harvest since 1961.
"Extreme environmental conditions" such as droughts, fires and other climate-related problems are mainly responsible for the largest decline in the last six decades, OIV explained on Thursday.
The worst affected countries were Italy and Australia, where production fell by 23% and 26% respectively. Spain lost more than five percent of its production, Chile and South Africa more than ten percent. In France, wine production bucked the trend and grew by four percent. Due to the large drop in production in Italy, France was by far the world's largest wine producer last year.
Last year, 1.01 hectoliters of wine were produced in Switzerland. Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to an increase of around two million liters or two percent. Due to the high temperatures and low rainfall during the ripening process, the sugar content was higher than usual.
In Germany, wine production fell by 3.8% from 8.9 million hectoliters to 8.6 million hectoliters. According to the OIV, a total of 237.3 million hectoliters of wine were produced worldwide. In 2022, the figure was 262.6 million hectoliters.
Less wine consumed
The France-based OIV, which has almost 50 wine-producing member countries, also announced that three percent less wine was consumed in 2023 than in the previous year. This is partly due to inflation and partly due to declining consumption in China. Portugal, France and Italy continue to drink the most wine per capita.
OIV Director General John Bark referred to "drought, extreme heat and fires as well as heavy rainfall causing flooding and fungal diseases in the most important wine-growing regions of the northern and southern hemisphere". Although climate problems are not solely responsible for the drastic decline, climate change is "the most important challenge" for the industry, Barker explained. The grapevine is "severely affected by climate change".
©Keystone/SDA
English 
German 
French 
Spanish 
Arabic