MINISTERE DE L'AGRICULTURE, DEPARTEMENT VITICULTURE
Consumers
1. National Consumption
French consumption of wine has plummeted for the last fifteen years (-18.88%) but that downward trend had already begun three decades ago. The consumption crisis can be partially explained by a shift in consumer behaviours and a combination of sociological, structural and lifestyle changes (see later in the case). Sedentariness and urbanization contributed to that decline.
Wine consumption by the French (2000 to 2015)
2. Global Consumption
Consumption in the top 10 markets (2000 to 2014)
This graph illustrates how the wine consumption of the top 10 wine consuming countries has changed between 2000 and 2014. It is important to note that these 10 countries consumed 69.85% of the world consumption in 2014.
First of all, as we said before, the consumption of wine in France is decreasing year after year. Let’s now take a look at other countries.
Following the same trend as France are Italy, Spain and Argentina; they also have seen their consumption decrease over the last 15 years.
However consumption has risen sharply in the U.S.A. by 31.4% between 2000 and 2007 and 15.5% between 2007 and 2014 to become nowadays world’s first wine consumer.
Australia has also seen an increase in consumption every year from 2000 to 2014; total consumption in this country increasing by 38% between 2000 and 2014.
Great Britain’s consumers, for their part, increased their consumption by 41% between 2000 and 2007; this consumption levelled off between 2007 and 2014 with a lot of fluctuation and a total mere increase of 1%.
The wine consumption of Germany stayed stable from 2000 to 2014 and is believed to stay at the current level, which is around 20,200 mhl.
The trends of consumption in the two last countries are probably the most remarkable. China has seen its consumption rise by 17% between 2000 and 2007 and has experienced an incredible increase of wine consumption between 2010 and 2011 of a 118%. This is of course linked to the successful economic boom China has experienced. However there was a recent decrease from 17, 471 mhl in 2013 to 15,800 mhl in 2014. This might be because of the recent currency fluctuations and the economic slowdown.
Russia has seen, nearly each year, since 1995, an increase in volume of wine consumed. This was until 2008 when consumption of wine started fluctuating around 12,000 mhl ± 10%.
Moreover, we can see (on average) different consumer behaviours per country by looking at the wine consumption per capita (see table below).
Consumption per capita for the top 10 wine consuming markets (l/capita)​
The following can be stated:
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The UK, Spain, Argentina and Australia roughly have the same consumption per capita.
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China, while reaching the top 5 wine consuming economies in 2014, has a relatively low wine consumption per capita, this is of course because of its huge population, many people do not/are not able to drink wine.
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The countries with the largest wine production have a higher consumption per capita (France, Italy). Spain has a significant lower wine production (while still being one of the biggest producers) which might explain its lower consumption per capita. It can of course also be cultural related.
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The United States, biggest wine consumer of 2014 (and increasing!), has a relatively low consumption of wine per capita (10.25 l/capita). This might be explained by the fact that the U.S.A. has a large population (318,9 million in 2014) and a culture not so much fixed around wine which results in lot of people not drinking wine in that country.
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Russia has a low wine consumption per capita probably due to on one hand cultural factors (e.g. consume other drinks) and on the other hand that a large amount of the people do not have the money to buy wine.