25.10.18 Latest Sherry Sales Figures

The figures to the end of August make rather gloomy reading with overall sales volumes dragged down again by declining sales of BOB in the export markets which are down 7.8% on the same period last year. A total of 18.3 million litres left the bodegas till the end of August this year as opposed to a total of 19.1 million for the same period last year; a drop of 4.5%.

Sherry has always been an export wine, but that is gradually changing with the Spanish market, which grew by 0.15%, now accounting for 43% of sales or approximately 8 million litres – more than double the UK market, traditionally the largest, which is down a scary 12.2% to just 3.6 million litres. The European market just scraped over 9 million litres after a drop of 8.9% thanks mainly to the decline in BOB sales, with Holland down 13.4% and Germany down 1.55%.

It is not all bad news however; the United States has seen growth of 8.7% importing 770,000 litres and Japan an impressive 32.9% and 110,000 litres. The Americas as a whole are up 1.2% due mainly to the US while the Asian market as a whole is up 9% due mainly to Japan. Looking at the moving anual total of sales for the last 12 months they are down by 5.6% with a volumen of 31.7 million litres.

Regarding styles of wine, Manzanilla saw growth of 0.62% selling a shade over 5 million litres while Fino is down 3.5% to 4.2 million litres. Medium and Cream, which are mostly BOB fell by 9.3% and 7.2% respectively and Pale Cream was down 11.6%. Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel saw growth of about 10% with sales of Moscatel at 47,218 litres and PX at around 500,000 litres but Amontillado was down 15.7%.

A decade ago total volume sales were around 50 million litres so a decline of some 30% has taken place since then, which looks very worrying on the face of it, but this decline is almost entirely in the BOB market which consists of cheap wines blended for the supermarkets which do nothing for the quality image of Sherry or for the public conception of it. In fact some bodegas have pulled out of this market altogether as there is very little profit anyway except in sheer volume. The future of Sherry, as with all fine wines, is low volume and high quality at a price which represents value to the consumer and profit for all in the production chain.