| Renewed success of the International Wine Forum |
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| 17 de septiembre de 2008 12:17 | ||||||||
 Wine forum This year’s edition of the Forum, titled “Competitiveness in Changing Environments”, organized by Bodegas de Argentina and operated by Área del Vino, featured some heavy weights of the wine world: economist and sociologist Juan José Llach; Arend Heijbroek, the Dutch vicepresident of Rabobank; Rogerio D’avila -executive director of Expand Group Brasil- and Jorge Lucki -Brazilian wine journalist; Mathilde Hebert, marketing manager of Saint Gabain France; US consultant Jon Fredrikson; Rafael del Rey, the director of the Spanish Wine Federation; and Carlos Falcó, Marquis of Griñón. During the opening ceremony, the president of Bodegas de Argentina, Juan José Canay, pointed out that “when we outlined the 2020 Argentina Vitivinícola strategic plan (PEVI), we did not believe that Argentina would be able to actively participate in the world business; a short time ago, we comprised only 1% of the world trade, but today we have a 3.5% share. This growth is sustained by forward-looking decision-making, a factor that leads countries towards development…In the Forum, it will be helpful to continue on this same path.” Mendoza’s Governor Celso Jaque, who was also present during the opening ceremony, emphasized that “we are proud of the industry; it is one of the few sectors reflected in a national law which clearly established long-term objectives.” However, he remarked that it is important to “make a stop on our way, as the Forum has done for four years, in order to be able to incorporate new variables, such as globalization, the most important one.” Asia, a nearby horizon “Among world currencies, Asian ones will surely be revalued in the next few years,” economist Juan José Llach claimed. He offered a thorough panorama of world economy and affirmed, paraphrasing Economics Nobel prize winner Roberto Fogel, that “the economic center of world power is shifting from the Atlantic to the Pacific.” Asked by the winery owners whether Asia should be the next focus market, he said that “intuitively, I see that these markets are so major that not considering them systematically is a big mistake. I believe that for the PEVI 2030 Asia should be positioned higher in the horizon.” With regard to the United States, he indicated that as long as the subprime mortgage crisis persists, the economic scenario will remain volatile and will be characterized by a slowing of the development world. In terms of the dollar, he argued that it has already hit rock bottom compared to the pound and the euro. “The revaluation of the dollar will be a volatile, discontinued process,” he remarked. When referring to the prospects for next year, he anticipated that threats are to be related to geopolitical factors, oil prices and environmental issues. “There is a lower risk of inflation as a result of the decrease in oil prices. Moreover, world growth will gain strength again once the credit crisis in the US and the changes in energy and food prices are overcome. The supply will react, as it happened with the green revolution,” he forecasted. Consensus towards growth Through a videoconference, Rafael del Rey offered his lecture from Spain and was much applauded by the audience. The director of the Spanish Wine Federation and current director of the Wine Markets Observatory highlighted the accomplishments attained by Spain based on consensus between the public and private sectors, which has enabled it to fix action policies. These have positioned it as the world’s second wine exporter. In fact, last year Spain surpassed France in volume, adding up to 1500 million liters. “We try to generate consensus in order to reach shared ideas. Once we have them, we try to transfer them to the appropriate actor. One of the services we are concerned about is providing the most suitable information about how the wine industry is evolving at the national and world levels. Information is also a key factor in order to achieve consensus,” he claimed. In the past few years, Spain has achieved a balanced situation. Even though its domestic market is falling, last year it was able to raise exports by 12% in value and 7% in volume. Despite the consensus achieved, del Rey granted that it must focus on key issues. “We have tried to carry out joint promotional actions, but we have not been able to reach an agreement. Anyways, we have achieved consensus about the need of diversifying the product portfolio and of exporting,” he concluded. Achieving higher value During his presentation, Arend Heijbroek, Rabobank’s wine and spirits specialist, argued that trends in the world market and competitor facing Argentina are both changing. “Since 2000, Australia, one of the countries better positioned in the low price wine segment, has been investing in promotion and in increasing its Premium and Super Premium segments. But the negative surprise implied that these wines were not successfully incorporated in the markets.” Heijbroek remarked that France is very strong in the high quality segment in the United States, mostly in terms of champagne. Nevertheless, it is losing ground in lower segments. With these examples, he laid the bases for affirming that “having low prices does not mean being successful in the market.” He added that Argentina is currently “the world’s lowest-cost producer. This allows it to conquer markets easily, but it raises the question of whether higher-priced wines could be introduced.” “In order to raise sales prices (for the country at large), there is challenge for each producer. It takes time, there are many ways of doing it, but the focus should be mainly set on high quality wine production. Argentina is the current revelation in the US.” With regard to advertising, he emphasized that “there are companies with no budget for advertising their wines, but some others are allocating 20% of their earnings to advertising, although on average, between 2 and 5% should be invested in this. For Argentina, it would be really good to better develop its country brand, although the rewards of this kind of effort may only be seen in the long term.” Stars in the United States During his lecture, Jon Fredrikson, president of Gomberg, Fredrikson and Associates consulting company, talked about the future of the major market -in terms of value- for Argentinian wines. Currently, 9.4 liters per capita are consumed in the US. It is estimated that only 2 out of 5 people drink wine and the beer and soft drink market is 9 times larger than the wine market. Nevertheless, this is one of the markets where the highest growth is expected in the upcoming ten years. Despite this prediction, the recession in the US may slow down sales. “We have the stats for the first six months of the year and I think that restaurants are the ones that have suffered the most as a result of consumers’ budget cuts,” he commented. However, he granted that the scary stories that the press has been writing with regard to the recession as “the end of the world” have affected distributors and retailers, who reduced their inventories, “but sales are not falling, they are actually better than distributers expected.” With regard to Argentinian wines, he highlighted that he could only offer good news: “they are stars within the imported wine market in the US. Consumers recognize that they can get good quality for reasonable prices when they buy Argentinian wines.” Shared stories Mathilde Hebert, marketing coordinator of Saint Gobain glass company, presented about consumption trends around the world. “Sparkling wines have grown more than still wines. Even though beer is still the favorite beverage, it is mostly targeted to men, whereas sparkling wine is closer to women, who enjoy easy-drinking wines, with less alcohol and fruity personalities, for diverse occasions. The world trend is leading towards lighter beverages,” she argued, and commented on Rosé’s potential. Last, but not least, Carlos Falcó, Marquis of Griñón, shared his experience and emphasized the importance of making investments in the vineyards. “Wine quality increases, resulting in premium wines, which are the key of the market. A market should not be jammed with low-priced wines because the country image or brand is hence stuck on that perception, and it is hard to change it,” he added. Drawinf from his own experience, he commented about the development of the Marqués de Griñón brand. “We are focusing on the production of two wine styles: a commercial style (vins de négociant), in partnership with Arco Group; and “vinos de pago” (vins de domaine, chateau, estate wines), wines aimed at higher quality segments, targeted to high cuisine and wine stores.”
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