Serbia annually produces about 160,000 tons of grapes, from which some 30 million liters of wine are produced. The affirmation of Serbian winemaking has continued continuously in the last fifteen years, but the country is still far from fully developing its potential, which is estimated at 70 million liters per year.
However, as shown by the last Wine Vision wine fair held in Belgrade, the entire region, and especially Serbia, has a lot to offer, so the interest in entering this business is growing. Serbia has 19,973 hectares under vines, with an increase in the area where this culture is grown in the last few years.
According to the agricultural census, approximately 80,000 agricultural farms in Serbia are engaged in grape production, of which 47,120 are registered in the Register of Agricultural Farms of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in 2022, there were over 450 producers in Serbia registered for the production of wine that is put on the market.
The increasing interest of consumers and, at the same time, consistently good exports, lead to an increase in the number of winemakers and the entry of many new small wineries into this market.
Ferenc Brindza from the Brindza winery from Bačka Topola, founded in 2008, says that “Wine Vision” was an opportunity for winemakers to present themselves, and that the fair is a “good business environment”.
“Unofficially, I heard that this fair is the third largest in Europe and that means a lot, there are many people interested in trying wine and the fair gives winemakers the strength to exhibit and present both knowledge and craft,” says Brindza.
Serbian winemakers will need that knowledge and craft, not only in matters of planting, selection of varieties, maceration and other aspects of the production itself, but also largely in terms of marketing and sales – because, although Serbia exports wine worth 21 million euros, it imports even more, as much as 36.8 million euros, and the competition is extremely fierce.
That is why more and more wineries are paying equal attention to packaging and overall branding as to the wine itself, so today we have local wines with a modern minimalist design like Tri Morava Winery Tenet or those that derive their market advantage from the names of their founders or “brand ambassadors” like Zvonko Winery Bogdan, or those who label the Statue of Liberty, blame the Tower of Pisa or Big Ben as Brindza does.
All of this should help to continue the further growth of production and exports, which last year increased by 25 percent compared to 2021.
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