Much of the fruit in the Southern Hemisphere has now been harvested, and although official estimates are still pending, overall volumes look to be trending downwards, sometimes quite significantly, whilst quality is highly rated across-the-board. We take a look at what this means for the current marketing campaign.
“Whether by Mother Nature or human hand, the global bulk wine market is getting the Southern Hemisphere crops it needs to restore some supply-demand equilibrium, at least on whites”
The comment, by Robert Selby, editor at international brokerage company Ciatti, pretty much sums up the situation across the major producer countries south of the equator. Only Argentina is expecting a sizeable uptick in production this year – currently estimated at +24% by the country’s vine and wine institute INV – but this has to be put into the perspective of last year’s extreme production shortfall (8.8 mhl versus a five-year average of 12.5 mhl). South Africa is expecting its shortest crop in 22 years, Chile could be 20-25% down from the average and reports from Australia similarly indicate low output, yet to be officially quantified.
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