Portugal is the country with the highest per capita consumption of wine, with an average of 54 litres consumer per person per year.
In the remaining top places are France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina, Germany - and Australia with a rather poor 27 litres per head, according to the annual report of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine.
Neighbouring Spain comes in at number eight in the worldwide ranking with under half Portugal’s consumption figure at 25.4 litres per head, followed by the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Demand for wine increased by only 0.4% worldwide last year to 242 million hectolitres, in line with a general stagnation since the 2008 crisis hit wine racks across the globe.
The highest increase in consumption was in China (+ 6.9% ), followed by Italy (+ 5.3%) and the US (+ 2.8%).
Overall wine production fell by 3% to 267 million hectolitres, mainly due to unfavorable climatic conditions in some of the main producing countries, such as Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine report states that the three largest producers remain Italy (+2%), France (-7%) and Spain (+4%).
International wine trade volume fell by 1.2% in 2016, but increased by 2% in value to €29 billion.
Spain remains the largest exporter in quantity, with 22.3 million hectolitres, but France shipped the highest value with €8.255 billion in exports.
Despite Portugal's massive per capita consumption, the country's producers formed the 9th largest gropup of exporters with 2.8 million hectolitres shipped for €734 million in export earnings.
Comments
They can tell you all about it in the EU administration in Brussels....