Wine consumption slides in 2025

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Jamaica Observer

PARIS, France (AFP) — Wine consumption fell worldwide last year, the industry's trade body said Tuesday, amid changing lifestyles and economic pressure on consumers.The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said in its annual review that the industry was confronted in 2025 by a combination of climatic variability, softer demand and rising trade uncertainty.It found consumption slid by 2.7 per cent last year to 208 million hectolitres, taking the cumulative drop since 2018 to 14 per cent.This evolution reflects the interaction between longer-term changes in consumption patterns and a more difficult economic environment in recent years, said the OIV.Evolving lifestyle preferences, shifting social habits and generational changes continue to influence consumer behaviour in several mature wine markets, it added.The OIV also noted that the wine industry has faced a succession of external pressures since 2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, trade disruptions and inflationary pressures, all of which have weighed on purchasing power and consumer confidence.It noted nine of the world's top 10 wine markets recorded lower volumes, and said three markets played an outsized role in the global decline: China, France and the United States (US).In the United States, the world's leading wine market, consumption fell 4.3 per cent last year which the OIV put down to reduced purchasing power, a reduction in alcohol consumption among younger consumers and a wider selection of alcoholic beverages.The impact of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump is still difficult to isolate among all of those factors, OIV's director John Barker told AFP.In France, Europe's biggest wine market, consumption fell 3.2 per cent.In China, wine consumption fell by 13 per cent last year and by 61 per cent since 2020.