OREANDA-NEWS  Global consumption last year fell to the lowest since 1996, while Russia became the seventh in this indicator, according to an analysis by RIA Novosti of data from the International Organization of Viticulture and Winemaking.

So, in 2023, 22.1 billion liters of wine were drunk in the world compared to 22.7 billion liters a year earlier. Among the main reasons for the recession are a serious decline in consumption in China, as well as the energy crisis, which caused a significant increase in wine prices in most countries.

The United States became the largest consumer of wine in the world, although its consumption there decreased by 3% to 3.3 billion liters. This is followed by the French, who drank 2.4 billion liters of wine last year against 2.5 billion liters a year earlier. Italy closes the top three, where consumption decreased by 2.5% to 2.2 billion liters.

Next are Germany (1.6% decrease in consumption, to 1.9 billion liters) and the United Kingdom (2.9% decrease, to 1.3 billion liters). Spain, which ranked sixth in wine consumption last year, became one of the countries where its consumption increased by 1.7%, to 1 billion liters.

Russians drank 860 million liters of wine last year, which is 3% more than in 2022. Such an increase returned consumption to the pre-crisis levels of 2019, and the country became the seventh in the world in this indicator.

Argentines last year reduced their wine consumption by 6.2% to 780 million liters. China has become the leader in reducing consumption, where it has collapsed by 25% in a year, and since 2018 – by 2.6 times, to 680 million liters. Portugal closes the top 10, where wine consumption also decreased by 9.2%, to 550 million liters.
Among the other major wine consumers, the indicator increased in Romania (by 20.1%), Brazil (by 11.6%) and Japan (by 2.1%).