Markets outside the European Union save wine exports in Portugal
Outside sales grew 1.6% in the first seven months of the year, despite the 8.5% drop in Vinho do Porto.
Wine exports returned to positive ground. From January to July, Portuguese producers exported 1.740 million hectoliters of wine in the amount of 450.736 million euros, which represents a year-on-year growth of 2.9% in volume and 1.6% in value. Good news after the April and May crashes, which caused the sector to close the first half with a year-on-year drop of 0.9%.
"Very positive" data, says the president of the Institute of Vine and Wine, but alerts that the unknown global situation of the pandemic in the last quarter of the year, a critical period for the sales of alcoholic beverages, due to Christmas and the the end of the year, does not yet allow to prospect of a global performance in 2020.
"It can be seen that the sector is operating in a positive way and fighting the obstacles that it has faced, although there are some issues of concern, such as the case of the crash in France, which is the main market for national wines", says Bernardo Gouvea. In fact, sales to France fell 8.1% to 60.5 million euros accumulated in the seven months, which despite everything, shows some recovery. The drop in April was almost 35%, but in July it only dropped 0.5%.