Sherry Sales Figures January - August

Sales of Sherry are still subsiding except in Spain where they rose between January and August by 7% with a volume of over 8.3 million litres, more than the 500,000 litres increase of the previous year. This growth compensates partly for the drop in exports, some 2% down up till August at 21 million litres. The home market is the largest single market, up by the same margin as exports are down. 12.5 million litres were exported in January to August, almost 1 million less than in the same period last year.

The Consejo has discovered an error in its statistics, however, which will have to be corrected by the end of the year. It appears that some sales are being counted twice: as domestic and export sales. A considerable amount of wine produced by a reputable bodega for another thanks to an agreement between the two in which the first records production of the wine and the second that of the brandies. Without yet knowing the precise amount of wine involved, the sales statistics are prolonging the agony in traditional markets, in particular Britain which is down 4% with a volume of 4.2 million litres.

Holland is the second largest export market, up 2.15% at over 4.1 million litres, catching up with Britain, but Germany has dropped 18.5% to only 1.6 million litres. So far this year Jerez has exported 11,359,071 litres to Europe, a drop of 7.33%, with exports to the rest of the world of just over 1.3 million litres, of which the Americas took 1.2 and Asia 166,000. The Americas are down 6.7% despite a slight increase in the USA which took 866,000 litres. Japan grew 20% but from a small base taking 110,000 litres.

The annual figures from September 2014 to August 2015 show an overall drop of 3% with just over 36.2 million litres sold. Spain has taken over definitively from Britain as the biggest market with 12 million litres, up 4.1% last year as against the 10 million litres exported to the UK, a drop of just over 5%. The drop in exports for this period was 6.3% with Europe with most of the traditional markets down 7%. The Americas grew by 0.26% thanks to an increase in the US of 6.6% or 1.5 million litres while Asia is down 7.4%.

Sales Figures by Type

For the period January to August Fino remains the best seller at 5.1 million litres, a drop of 2.1% while Medium is just ahead of Manzanilla, both at about 5 million litres but Medium has grown 1.44% while Manzanilla has dropped 3.36%. For the last year, September to August, Medium has gained volume to 8.2 million litres, down 1% while Fino has dropped 4.55% to about 8 million litres. Manzanilla, now in 4^th place with 7 less than million litres down 2.73%, has given way to Cream with 7.7 million litres, up 1.25%.

By market, although Manzanilla is still ahead in Spain with January to August figures of 4.8 million litres – down 3% - or 6.3 million litres in the last year – down 2.5%, Fino is catching up with 1.8 million litres January to August – up 14.36% - and 2.6 million litres in the last year, up 7.8%. It could be that sales of Manzanilla are being held back by the bag in box business. In regard to exports Medium leads the way with 7.7 million litres in the last year (-5.54%) followed by Cream at 6.6 million litres (-0.4%), Fino 5.4 million litres (-9.64%), Pale Cream 2.5 million litres (-4.74%) and Manzanilla at just over 630,000 litres (-5%).

We all need to do more!!