Despite the difficulties of the past year, the United Kingdom has not slowed down in terms of wine imports.
“Despite the pandemic and Brexit in 2020, the United Kingdom was the main wine importer with a value of more than 4 billion euros”.
The United Kingdom has always been a Country very fond of wine and in fact its consumption has never been low. In 2020 it obtained the title of world leader in wine import: 1,458 million liters imported at an average price (2.7 € / L) for a total value of 4 billion euros.
Two main factors contributed to this result: Brexit and the pandemic. “The restrictions have clearly increased the volume of online sales and home consumption. These contributed to the explosion of bulk wine and bag-in-box wines with a significant increase of 11.5% in terms of volume and 15.5% in value“. Fear of the new tariffs imposed by Brexit has prompted people to accumulate consumer goods, especially the wine category.
Italy remains the main exporter of wine to the United Kingdom in terms of volume, with 292 million liters of wine exported. Negative trend, however, on the value front, where Italy recorded a decline of 10% (741 million euros).
“Second place goes to Australia in terms of volume, with 248 million liters and +7% compared to last year and with a value of 329.5 million euros. The United States saw an increase of 10% in volume and 19% in value, thus reaching 253 million euros; positive trends also for Chile, which grew by 11% and 12% respectively“.
The full Wine Meridian article is available here.