UK Winemakers Pledge 10-fold Increase in Exports

The UK wine industry is celebrating a highly successful 2015 with a pledge to increase exports 10-fold by 2020.

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss announced that the UK wine industry is boosting production, aiming to increase the export value to £30 million (currently around £3.2 million). This decision came after the Secretary called the first ever ‘wine round table’ with leading wine representatives from around the world to celebrate English and Welsh sparkling wine.

Targets

• A 10-fold increase in wine exports, increasing from 250,000 bottles to 2.5 million bottles by 2020. In terms of value, this would be an export increase from £3.2 million to over £30 million by 2020
• An ambition to grow the area of planted vineyards from 2000 hectares to 3000 hectares by 2020
• An increase in production from 5 million bottles per year to up to 10 million bottles by 2020
• Access to new data on soil types, water resources, and infrastructure networks to identify the best areas of land are for production.

How will they do it?

These new targets are being backed by the government’s Great British Food Unit which was recently launched to help boost exports and investments for emerging British companies.

The government have also promised to find another 75,000 hectares of suitable wine-growing areas in the UK by doing a detailed analysis of the best land (or terrior) for the future of the vineyards.

The EU is already a growing market for English wine, and there is increasing demand around the world, from Hong Kong to the USA, for leading English wines such as Ridgeview and Chapel Down.

It’s an exciting time for the English sparkling wine industry, with sales already doubling in the last 5 years and breaking a record of £100 million in 2015.

The Environment Secretary believes English sparkling wine has the potential to take on Champagne and Italian wine. Increasing overseas exports will help UK bubbly be recognised around the world for it’s excellent quality.