Food Global wine consumption falls to lowest level since 1957

Last year, global wine consumption fell to its lowest level since 1957. Consumption fell to 208 million hectoliters, a decrease of 2.7 percent compared to 2024 and a decrease of 14 percent compared to 2018.

Keystone-SDA

14.05.2026, 00:49

SDA

This was announced by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) in Dijon, France. The reasons are long-term social changes and recent economic uncertainties, from the coronavirus pandemic to inflation, conflicts and customs duties.

The resulting increase in production costs and prices, as well as the simultaneous decline in consumers' disposable income, have had a severe impact on demand. According to the OIV, declining sales have been particularly noticeable in the USA, China and the classic wine country of France, where consumption has been falling for decades.

In France, the world's second-largest wine market after the USA and the most important in Europe, consumption fell to 22 million hectoliters in 2025, a year-on-year decline of three percent. In Italy, the second most important wine country in Europe with a consumption of 20.2 million hectoliters, the decline was 9.4 percent. Germany is in third place, with a consumption of 17.8 million hectoliters and a decline of 4.3 percent.

Changes in consumer behaviour decades ago had already led to a departure from a historical model that was characterized by a high consumption of inexpensive table wine in a relatively small group of countries. Although the overall volume of consumption worldwide declined as a result, the trend towards better and more expensive wines and the development of new markets in industrialized countries led to an increase in value, which ultimately benefited the wine sector, according to the OIV.

The current changing consumer trends are not just about lower sales volumes. With the emergence of new, more diverse, more dynamic and, above all, more digitally oriented population groups, there is a reorientation of the question of how, where and why wine is consumed.