German imports recover from crisis

After steep drop, things are looking up again.

German import figures pick up again / Credit: Gerliegner-WW
German import figures pick up again / Credit: Gerliegner-WW

The latest available data from the Federal Statistical Office on German wine imports are a good reflection of the slump and gradual recovery as the Corona vaccination rates progress. 

March one year ago, on 13 and 17 March 2020 to be exact, the federal and state governments decided on the first lockdown after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, putting many business and social activities on hold for what would be a long time.

Wine imports also collapsed dramatically at that time, which in return is now reflected in the statistics in the form of rich growth rates. In March 2021, a total of 1.256 million hectolitres of wine worth €258 million were imported into Germany. Compared to March 2020, this was a whopping 31.1 percent more volume with a value increase of plus 14.1 percent. The positive trend of growing wine imports thus continues for the sixth month in a row. 

For the 12-month period from April 2020 to March 2021, the volume has already increased by 1.1 percent to 13.86 million hectolitres of wine. In terms of value, however, imports are still in the red at 4.1 percent. The average import price was €1.84 per litre. 

 

 

The main reason for the decline in value is the import of so-called "other wines", which mainly include processing and table wines without a specific designation of origin, but which make up the bulk of imports with almost 10.2 million hectolitres. They are simply cheaper to purchase. In contrast, wines in the quality wine category remained largely stable with a volume of 2.275 million hectolitres. In terms of volume, they remained almost unchanged, increasing by 2.9 percent in value. 

Of the almost 230 million litres of quality wine with an indication of origin, almost 100 million litres came from Italy, followed by Spain with about 60 million litres, and France with 36 million litres. However, with an average of €5.47 per litre, French wines of origin earn more than twice as much as wines of origin from Spain with €2.45 per litre. 

The most important import country remains Italy with about 5 million hectolitres, followed by France, Spain, South Africa, USA, Austria, Australia, Chile, Portugal and New Zealand. The import wine business, like the rest of life, seems to be gradually returning to normal. hp

 

 

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