The claim comes from J. Antonio Valls, the general manager of Alimentaria Exhibitions and head of Intervin, the wine, cider and spirits section within the show.
He said: “The track record of Spanish wines on leading supermarket shelves and in restaurants around the world is promising.”
“However, Spanish wine needs to continue regaining its domestic market, making note of the changes that are taking place in consumer habits, distribution, wine tourism and new sales channels,’ said Valls.
Adding value is the big challenge facing internationalisation, according to Valls, given that the average value of Spanish bottled wine and bulk wine sales (the latter of which accounts for 46% of exports) is below that of the competition.
Improving Spanish wine’s positioning abroad entails moving from bulk wines to bottled wines, and the goal is to strengthen marketing tactics and improve people’s perception of the brand and the country as a producer of quality wines, he concludes.
Spain sells more than double what is consumed within its borders (more than 2.4 billion litres), surpassing Italy (approximately 2 billion litres) and France (1.416bn litres), two of its main competitors, according to Alimentaria
It currently exports around 10 million hectolitres more than 10 years ago: some 50.7% of Spanish production is sold abroad, while 10 years ago it was 27%.
According to the Spanish Wine Market Observatory, the main destinations for Spanish wines are Germany, the UK and France, though the most notable growth has been in exports to the US, Canada, Mexico, Italy, China and Ireland.
The Alimentaria organisers claim that Intervin is the most important sector event for the Spanish wine industry and its main platform for accessing international markets.
Having established itself as part of Alimentaria, Intervin is said to bring together more than 700 wineries in a net exhibition area of more than 15,000 sq. m. Alimentaria takes place from April 16 to 19, 2018 at Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via exhibition centre.
