The world production of came fell this year to its lowest level in six decades due to a succession of frosts, droughts and strong rainswith large declines in South America and Spain, according to the International Organization of the Vineyard and the Came (OIV).
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The overall volume fell in 2023 a 7 percent compared to last year, according to the first estimates of the OIV about this year.
France maintained stable production and is once again the world’s largest producer in volume, ahead of Italy, where production fell 12 percentand Spain (-14 percent).
All major South American countries producers of wine recorded a significant drop in production compared to the previous year.
In Chile, which is the first producer of the southern hemisphere, the volume of came It is 20 percent below last year’s high production and 18 percent below its five-year average. The harvest was seriously affected by forest fires and droughts.
In the valleys of central Chile, land of Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, the wine producers They harvest at night, they resort to horse manure and rescue old techniques to face the lack of water and the onslaught of the weather.
After more than a decade of droughtthe winegrowers of the Colchagua and Cachapoal valleys, one of the regions with the greatest wine production In Chile, about 200 kilometers from Santiago, they learned to live with less water.
“We are returning to practices that we probably had before, but on a larger scale and in a systematic way,” said Soledad Meneses, head of communications for vineyard Conosur, a subsidiary of Concha y Toro, the largest producer in Latin America.
Also affected by spring frosts and hailstorms, the production of came Argentina only reached 8.8 million hectoliters (-23 percent). This represents one of the lowest volumes recorded in its history.
The production fell also strongly in Brazil (-30 percent) and in Uruguay (-34 percent), according to the first estimates of the OIV.
Among the other major producers of came In the southern hemisphere, Australia suffered a drop in production of 24 percent and South Africa of 10 percent.
Spain remains the third world producer, with an estimated volume of 30.7 million hectoliters, the lowest in the last 20 years, as a result of a severe drought and extreme temperatures that hit the vineyards.
Disparate phenomena
The phenomena that affected the vineyards this year they are very disparate and it has not yet been proven that they are directly related to the climate changeaccording to Iñaki García de Cortazar-Atauri, from the Inrae agricultural research institute.
The consequences of the strong rains In Italy, for example, they are also related to the artificialization of land, this specialist in the impact of climate change explained to the AFP agency.climate change in the agriculture.
But, “we note that there are more and more recurrent extreme phenomena,” such as heat waves either rains torrential rains in certain areas, in addition to some long-known pests, such as mildew.
It is expected that the production total of came reach between 241 and 246 million hectoliters, according to the information collected by the OIV in 29 countries that represent 94 percent of world production.
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Some countries recorded a increase in productionstarting with the United States (+12 percent), which maintained its position as the fourth largest producer in the world, thanks to cool temperatures and abundant winter rains in the Napa and Sonoma wine regions.
However, the decline in production is not necessarily bad news, according to the OIVwhich points out:
“With a world consumption declining and high inventories in many regions of the world, the expected low production could rebalance the global market.