Serbia intends to flood the Chinese market with wine thanks to a gradual reduction in tariffs. However, data indicates that year after year, Serbia is producing and exporting less wine.
According to research from the Agricultural Faculty in Novi Sad and the Institute of Agricultural Economics in Belgrade, wine production in Serbia has continuously decreased over the past five years, as reported by Business and Finance.
According to this analysis, China has been the fifth-largest export market for Serbian wines during this period, where the average annual export was 319,000 liters at a price of approximately $3.8 per liter.
Over the past five years, the average export price has been $1.6 per liter. When comparing the largest export markets, it is evident that Serbia sells wine at the lowest price in Russia, where more than half of the total Serbian wine exports end up.
Regarding the placement of wine in the EU market, we are far from reaching the quantities that we can export duty-free according to the Stabilization and Association Agreement.
In the reports, it has been noted that over the past two decades, Serbian wine exports to China have increased from 80,000 to 380,000 liters. It was also mentioned that we mainly sell Chinese customers good-quality wine for around seven euros per bottle, and Chinese consumers are willing to pay even more for our wine.
The number of vineyards is unknown
Before our wine floods the Chinese market, it would be beneficial to know the extent of our vineyard areas, grape and wine producers, and the exact quantity of wine we produce. The mentioned research suggests that there are different data on these aspects.
The Republic Statistical Office (RZS) claims that there are over 20,000 hectares of vineyards, with 80,000 agricultural households engaged in grape production, of which over 47,000 are registered with the Ministry of Agriculture. According to this source, Serbia produces approximately 160,000 tons of grapes annually, and in 2022, there were 430 producers registered for wine production that is placed on the market.
However, other data indicate that the total vineyard area in Serbia, registered in the Vineyard Register, is around 6,500 hectares, managed by 4,618 grape producers. There are 424 registered wine producers.
The authors of the study state that the total wine production is nearly 30 million liters annually, but they emphasize that even this is not a reliable figure because it is estimated that the quantities produced by small producers are much higher.
Despite Serbia having the capacity to produce around 70 million liters of wine, during the researched period (2018-2022), the official indicators show an average production of 24.6 million liters per year, with a significant decline at a rate of approximately 7.5%.
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