Portugal has increased its presence in the US wine market, but may face some problems now. Expert also accuses the WHO of playing a “shameful” role.
Between January and November last year alone, Portugal exported a total of 328.9 million liters of wine, an increase of 10% compared to the previous year (2023).
It’s a profit increase of 4.3%even after the drop in the average price per liter, which fell from 2.88 euros to 2.73 euros, advances .
A total revenue was around R$899 million, and the biggest importers of Portuguese wine were USA, o biggest market in this sector for Portugal, surpassing France.
In fact, Americans are the biggest wine buyers in the world, and in 2024 their purchases of this product reached 94.8 million euros. However, it is in Angola where the most wine is bought, only cheaper — he bought 34 million liters, but paid only 1.2 euros per liter, while Americans pay 4.32 euros per liter, 2% more than the previous year.
Frederico Falcaopresident of , a promoter of Portuguese wines in the world, explains to Dinheiro Vivo that having the biggest buyer in the world as the main consumer is a “great sign”.
Latent threats
Portugal is well positioned in the American market, and in states like New York, points out the president of ViniPortugal, drinking Portuguese wine is already a habit.
The problem is that Donald Trump will adopt, after taking office in a week, long-announced. If that happens, Portugal could face some obstacles.
However, Frederico Falcão points out, it is not yet known whether the import tariffs threatened by the Republicans “will be transversal to all products or will be surgical, It’s too early to be talking about something that is completely uncertain at the moment.”
Despite everything, says the expert, the US continues to have “immense potential to explore”.
“Not one, but 50 countries. There are many states that consume wine and where Portugal does not have a presence, and, even though we may lose some market in the states where we already are due to the tariffs, this does not mean that we cannot gain market share by conquering other states“, he also guarantees.
But there are other threats that hover, like the realization of 4 studies in the USA that connect to and that has been taken into considerable consideration, as the research was really commissioned by the government American, remember . These are attacks by the anti-alcohol lobby, says Dinheiro Vivo.
These studies, admits Falcão, are a “obvious damage” to the Portuguese wine market. The expert even accuses the World Health Organization of issuing political and inaccurate statements.
“This is a WHO scientific error“, he accuses. “All studies talk about the harms of abusive consumption and the benefits of moderate consumptionbut as the WHO has difficulty, does not know or does not want to, explain what moderate consumption is, they opted for simplistic language saying that any type of consumption is wrong and harmful to health. What is it shameful“.
