Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2024 opens in an uncertain global economic context

The Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris trade show will be held from February 12, 2024. Producers, importers, distributors, sommeliers, wine merchants and even journalists flock to the Porte de Versailles, in the south of the French capital. They are all there to do business in an increasingly uncertain global economic environment.

Visit to the United States Embassy in France at the Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris 2023 trade show. © Sebastien D'halloy

By: Agnieszka Kumor

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In 2023, global wine production was

the lowest in sixty years

(i.e. 244 mln hectoliters). There were fewer wines produced, while production costs increased. An increase between 15% and 30%, on average, recalls Rodolphe Lameyse, general director of the organizer Vinexposium:

“This upward trend can be found in the final price of the bottle. This penalized the purchase and consumption of wine. »

Global demand for wines is declining

The surge in inflation has weighed on the purchasing power of wine lovers, but it does not explain everything. New consumption patterns, far from being a fad, have brought about a real structural change in the global wine market. After reaching a peak in 2007, consumption of red wine fell by 15% over fifteen years, according to the report from the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). Furthermore, demand for white wines and rosés has increased since 2000, without however changing the underlying trend. Global wine consumption continues to decline.

As a result, sales are declining. After the euphoria of emerging from the Covid-19 crisis, trade has once again seized up, believes Rodolphe Lameyse:

“We have seen an increase in stocks sent to the United States, but also to China. Opposite there are no commercial outlets. Which means that the new vintages that are arriving are currently not finding buyers on these markets.”

All international markets reflect this situation. In the first half of 2023, exports of French wines and spirits fell by 10.6% in volume, as well as 1.9% in value [

Source:

FEVS]. Sales figures for the whole of 2023 should be known at the show.

Relationship facilitator

Climate change, geopolitical issues, sustainable

packaging

, but also alcohol-free wines and spirits are on the show's menu. For this 2024 edition, Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris does not lack ambition:

“Our role is quite simple: it is to bring all the players in the global industry to the show. But beyond that, it is to allow each of these actors to meet political and economic emissaries from each country. We welcome more than forty diplomatic delegations to the show. We have a partnership with the Federation of French Wine & Spirits Exporters (FEVS). We work closely with the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV). In English, we say that we have the role of lobbyist. It's often a bad word in France. However, we are a facilitator of relationships,”

indicates the general director.

The

Parisian show

is positioned as a competitor to the German trade show ProWein in Düsseldorf (49,000 visitors in 2023). In Paris, more than 40,000 visitors are expected from February 12 to 14, including more than a third from abroad.

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