Romania’s wine export dropped by about 8% in value in 2016 but remained above EUR20 million for the second year in a row. Imports went up again to almost EUR50 million. The wine Romania exports is more expensive than the wine it imports, EUR1.6/liter on average compared with EUR0.9/liter.
Romania is one of the biggest producers of wine in Europe, but is almost invisible on the export map. Less than 4% of its production goes abroad, and most of it to European Union markets, ZF has found from available data. Countries like Spain, Bulgaria, Portugal and Italy export 40% to 50% of their wine production.
“The very high domestic demand makes Romanian producers concentrate their efforts on Romania instead of exports. Moreover, the export price is lower than the price on the local market, so there’s a clear explanation for this,” believes Dan Balaban, an entrepreneur who owns premium winemaker Davino together with enologist Bogdan Costachescu. He says the Romanian market is seeing significant growth and an example in that regard is the Davino business, which saw its highest growth ever, 25%, last year.
Another explanation for Romania’s low exports is the perception of its wine abroad. Romania is seen as a maker of cheap wine, and this has been going on since before 1989.
However, a number of small and medium-sized actors have entered the market in the past few years who are trying to change things by positioning on the premium segment. They are trying to reach other markets, go to international fairs but their export volumes are low.
“I’ve noticed international fairs have yielded poor results in the past few years. Moreover, I noticed the export volume is up but the average price is low,” says Victor Ciuperca, chief executive of premium winemaker Crama Liliac.
Romania continues to export high volumes at low prices. Average export price in 2016 was EUR1.6/liter, relatively constant in the past two years, but down on 2014. In comparison, it imported wine at less than EUR1/liter.
“Wine production was high last year so it was decided to export to China at a low price. This hurts Romania’s image abroad and makes it harder to make a name for a premium wine,” Ciuperca added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)