The Spanish wine industry is a world leader in terms of wine exports by volume and third in terms of the value of these exports, behind only France and Italy. Spanish wine is therefore present in the world's main wine consuming markets, contributing to the maintenance and even improvement of the Spain brand on an international scale. Through a descriptive analysis carried out with secondary sources of information, this research aims to analyze wine trade flows as well as the degree of concentration of these flows in order to determine the degree of equality or inequality among Spanish wine exporters. The results show that for the last decade Spain has had a surplus in the wine trade balance of more than 2,000 million euros per year, and more than 80% of the wineries export on a regular basis, with a high concentration of large wineries.
TopIntroduction
The Spanish agri-food industry combines maturity, the predominance of small companies and territorial roots, with a growing process of internationalization, technological innovation and the development of distribution channels (Rodrigo-Alarcón et al., 2014). Within this framework, the core activities of the wine value chain, i.e., viticulture, winemaking and marketing (hereinafter, the wine sector) occupy a prominent place in this industry as a whole, both in terms of the quality and variety of its production (Fuensanta et al., 2015).
The wine industry generates a Gross Value Added (GVA) of more than 23,700 million euros in Spain, equivalent to 2.2% of Spanish GVA, and provides more than 427,700 jobs, representing 2.4% of Spanish employment. Furthermore, wine activity is not only responsible for these contributions in economic and employment terms, but also represents an important source of revenue for the public coffers in terms of taxes and social security contributions. In fact, each year the sector directly contributes more than 3.8 billion euros in tax revenue for the State (AFI, 2020).
Beyond its economic contribution, the link between wine and Spanish culture is inescapable, since the tradition of vine cultivation and winemaking has left a deep imprint on its cultural and heritage legacy, crystallizing in various local festivities and a large number of vineyards in Spain (Marco-Lajara et al., 2022a; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022b; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022c; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022d; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022e;Marco-Lajara et al., 2022f; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022g; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022h; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022i; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022j; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022k; Marco-Lajara et al., 2022l; Seva-Larrosa et al., 2022). In fact, according to the records of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA, by its acronym in Spanish) for the year 2020, the presence of vineyards extends throughout all the Spanish autonomous communities.
In order to carry out this research, wine companies (wine production) have been selected as the unit of analysis given their importance for the economic and social development of Spain. Thus, according to the latest data provided by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV), Spain is a world reference in the wine sector, occupying the first place in the world in terms of surface area and export volume, as well as the third in terms of production, which shows the economic weight of the wine industry in the Iberian country. Through this research we contribute to generating useful knowledge for the decision-making process of wineries, which can consider the results of this research as a reference point for the development of the internationalization of their companies.
What is the trade balance of Spanish wine? How many exporting wineries are there in Spain? Are exports concentrated in a few wineries or fragmented among a large number of companies? These are the questions that the chapter aims to answer, providing new knowledge in the field of the international trade of Spanish wine. This chapter is therefore of great relevance, since it allows us to analyze the trade balance of Spanish wine over the last two decades and can serve as a reference for those academics who wish to analyze the impact of the different economic crises on the international wine trade. In particular, given the novelty of the results, the research serves to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on international trade, since, as several academics point out, the wine industry was not immune to the impact of the pathogen (Marco-Lajara et al., 2021a; Marco-Lajara et al., 2021b). The study also provides insight into the degree of internationalization of Spanish wineries and, therefore, their competitiveness vis-à-vis wineries in the Old and New World. In addition, the research analyses the degree of concentration of exports carried out by Spanish wineries through the study of the profile of these companies.
The research, therefore, is motivated by three premises. Firstly, the Spanish wine industry occupies a privileged position in the international wine trade, which is why it is necessary to periodically analyze these trade flows in order to understand how they are evolving. Secondly, given the strategic nature of the wine industry for the Iberian country, this analysis is particularly relevant, since it enables winemakers to have an up-to-date view of wine trade flows and, therefore, to make better decisions. Thirdly, Spanish public institutions can take decisions to reshape the structure of the industry, given that, as explained above, the research provides insight into the degree of concentration of Spanish wine exports.