Austrian exports subdued following economic volatility

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 31 March, 2025

The global economic situation is proving a challenge for Austrian wine exports as the sector experiences a decline for the first time after eight years of growth.

Figures confirmed by Statistics Austria show that Austria’s wine exports decreased in 2024 as a result of the difficult market situation around the world. Export value fell 6% to €233.3m and volume by 1.7% to 64.2 million litres, representing a 1.7% fall in export volume compared to 2023 and a 6% fall in value.

Over the long term, however, the trend still continues to be an upward one: since the last downturn in exports in 2015, Austria’s wine exports have increased by almost €90 million (+63%).

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Chris Yorke, CEO of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (Austrian Wine) explains: “In 2023, our wine exports came within a hair’s breadth of reaching a quarter of a billion at €248 million. The main driver for this was exceptionally high exports of bottled wine to our main export market, Germany. Since a higher volume of cheaper wine in bulk was sold to Germany again last year, we soon realised that we were not going to be able to match the exceptionally high export value achieved in 2023. The global economic situation as a whole is just too volatile for that at the moment.”

By the end of 2024, there were already indications that Austrian wine exports were going to be somewhat subdued. Now, the official figures from Statistics Austria show the region has suffered from a dip in interest abroad.

It wasn’t just Germany buying less bottled wine than usual in 2024 which impacted things –Austria itself exported less bottled wine in general. Records show a fall of 5.1% in volume and of 6.3% in value, while bottled red wines were particularly affected (-12.5% in volume and -14.4% in value). By contrast, the export of wine in bulk increased by 16.1%, but at a lower price, with the export value of bulk wine falling by 1.4%.

As a result of the larger quantities of cheaper bulk wines sold, the value of exports to Germany fell by 13.6% to €98.8 million. However, this is still higher than the value in 2022 (€94.5 million). Germany also remains the most important export market for Austria by a long way – 60% of all wine exported goes to Germany, representing 42% of the total export value.

Meanwhile, the US ousted Switzerland from its position as the second largest export market for Austrian wine. While Switzerland remained the second most important export market in 2023, painful losses were experienced in 2024. Volume fell by a third and value by 18%.

The US now accounts for 8.5% of Austria’s total wine export value. After a drop in 2023, the volume of exports to the US rose by 6.5% again last year and the value by 6%.

“The growth in the USA, the biggest importer of wine in the world, is obviously very pleasing, but at the same time, we will have to wait and see what kind of framework conditions the Trump administration brings in for trade with the wine industry in Europe,” Yorke said.

As in previous years, there were also positive developments in Canada and the Nordic monopoly markets (Norway, Sweden and Finland). However, it was in the Czech Republic that experienced particularly high increases. Export volumes jumped 80% and value by 58%.

Reviewing the current situation, Yorke pointed out that “All wine-producing countries are facing major challenges at the moment”. He referenced the volatile economic situation worldwide, which is making “it difficult to come up with long-term sales strategies”.

In 2024, Austria’s winemakers also had to come to terms with the smallest harvest for 14 years. While facing down smaller volumes in 2025, Yorke stressed the long-term longevity of the region.

“We last saw a fall in the export value in 2015. And what caused that? The low harvest in 2014. However, if we look back over our history, we can clearly see that Austrian wine is a long-term success story. The export value has risen by an impressive €90 million since 2015 – more than 60%. We at Austrian Wine will be working as hard as we can to make sure that this success story continues,” he concluded.

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