In descending order, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and Chile ranked as the largest exporters of fresh grape wine in 2020.
Among them, Chile stands out for being the only developing country in that classification
According to the company Compañía Cervecerías Unidas (CCU), the Chilean wine industry had an estimated size of 248 million liters in 2020.
Wines in Chile can be segmented by type of product. Chilean wineries produce and sell Premium, varietal and popular-priced wines within the national market.
On the one hand, Premium wines and many of the varietal wines are produced from high-quality grapes, aged and packed in glass bottles.
On the other hand, popular price wines are generally produced with non-varietal grapes and are not aged. These products are generally sold in cartons or jars.
Wine exporters
The external sales of wine from France in 2020 were for 9.975 million dollars.
Then followed those of Italy (7.190 million dollars), Spain (3.060 million), Australia (2.125 million) and Chile (1.826 million)
CCU indicates that the wine industry is highly fragmented and competitive in both the domestic and export markets.
No wine producer in Chile accounts for the majority of production and / or sales.
Antecedent
In November 2008, CCU and its affiliate VSP entered into a Merger Agreement with Compañía Chilena de Fósforos and its subsidiaries Terciados y Elaboración de Maderas y Viña Tarapacá (VT), in order to merge VT into VSP.
Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, and prior to its execution, CCU had to acquire 25% of VT’s capital stock. On December 3, 2008, the extraordinary shareholders’ meetings of VSP and VT approved the merger of both companies.
Once all legal requirements had been met, the merger by absorption of VT by VSP was completed on December 9, 2008, with an accounting effective date of October 1, 2008. The surviving company was called Viña San Pedro Tarapacá (VSPT).
Now, in Chile, VSPT competes directly with all other Chilean wineries.
In addition to VSPT, the leading wineries in Chile include Viña Concha y Toro, Viña Santa Rita and Bodegas y Viñedos Santa Carolina (Santa Carolina).
In addition, VSPT competes with numerous medium-sized wineries, including Viña Undurraga, Cousiño Macul and Viña Montes, among others.
Meanwhile, VSPT’s largest domestic competitors, such as Concha y Toro and Santa Rita, derive their relative competitive strengths from their broad product portfolio, well-known brands, and established distribution networks.
In 2020, Concha y Toro and Santa Rita had a volume market share of approximately 29.6 and 28.2%, respectively. VSPT also competes with many small wine producers.
At the international level, VSPT competes both with Chilean producers and with wine producers from other parts of the world.
According to information compiled by the Wines of Chile association, VSPT is the second largest exporter of Chilean wines with a market share of 12.4% in 2020, excluding bulk wine.
Its main Chilean competitors, mainly Viña Concha y Toro, Viña Santa Rita and Viña Santa Carolina, represented 33.2%, 5.1 and 4.0%, respectively, of total Chilean wine exports in 2020, excluding bulk wine.