As expected, the repeated lockdown hit the gastronomy sector particularly hard. The sector purchased a third less Austrian wine from wholesalers. To make matters worse, sales to tourists also plummeted by almost half (around six instead of 12 million litres).
These losses could not be compensated by the positively developing sales channels of home consumption and food retail, explains the organisation Österreich Wein Marketing (ÖWM) in a press release: "Austrian wine recorded increases in home consumption (+17 percent volume, +18 percent value) and in food retail (+16 percent volume, +17 percent value), where it even reached a record sales share of 75 percent." The average price of Austrian wines sold in food retail was 5.39 euros, the same as in the previous year.
Although Statistics Austria's export figures for 2020 as a whole are not yet available, current estimates assume only a slightly negative balance: around 62 million litres (2019: 63.5 million) worth 175 million euros (2019: 183 million) are likely to have been exported in 2020. sas
