The Spanish Wine Interprofessional Organisation delivers a blunt message: Spain can no longer afford to be the largest producer and the cheapest seller at the same time
Spain has the most extensive vineyard in the world. It is the second-largest exporter by volume. It leads organic production in the European Union. And yet, when one looks at the revenue generated per litre exported, the picture becomes considerably less flattering: the high proportion of bulk wine in Spanish exports significantly limits the added value that the sector extracts compared with competitors such as Italy or France. That is precisely the gap the sector now intends to close.
This week, the Spanish Wine Interprofessional Organisation (OIVE) presented the revised version of its strategic plan in Madrid, now extended to 2028, with an approach that marks a clear turning point in the way the business is conceived. The objective is to increase the value of exports by 16 per cent — the equivalent of generating an additional 484 million euros for the sector as a whole by 2027 — alongside an annual revaluation of 3.6 per cent in the domestic market. OIVE’s president, Fernando Ezquerro, summed up the entire strategy in a single phrase: the challenge is not to sell more, but to sell better.
The plan arrives at a particularly testing moment for the global market. The presentation took place against a backdrop of declining worldwide wine consumption and a degree of economic and geopolitical uncertainty that obliges producers to be considerably more sophisticated in their approach to international markets. The United States remains the reference point, although the tariffs in place push up prices at destination. Europe, meanwhile, is recording declines across almost every segment. Emerging markets such as India, Indonesia and the Mercosur countries represent an opportunity, but one that requires building from scratch a wine culture that does not yet exist in those societies.
The new plan identifies three major areas of opportunity: the rise of non-alcoholic wine; the growing interest in organic production, with the target of bringing 26 per cent of the vineyard under green certification by 2027; and wine tourism, which already attracted 2.9 million visitors in 2024 and represents a source of added value with enormous room to grow. Digitalisation, economic intelligence and innovation are presented as cross-cutting tools that must permeate the entire chain, from vine to consumer’s glass.
The document also addresses some of the sector’s most uncomfortable challenges with admirable candour: the need to halt the loss of planted surface area and stabilise it at the current 911,000 hectares, and the goal of keeping domestic consumption at around 11 million hectolitres per year — a figure that recent trends threaten to erode. The abandonment of vineyards due to labour shortages and competition from countries with significantly lower production costs are two further specters that continue to haunt the sector.
The plan’s main political ambition rests on European Union trade agreements. The deals with Mercosur, India and Indonesia envisage gradual tariff reductions that open doors to markets of enormous demographic potential, where wine still has everything to prove. It is both an opportunity and a risk in equal measure: penetrating those markets demands investment, patience and a positioning strategy that the Spanish sector has historically struggled to sustain over the long term.
Sobrelías Redacción
Sobrelías Redacción