With a resumption that began in the third quarter and gained momentum in the last three months of the year, the wine sector ended 2017 with positive data, presenting a 5.67% growth in sales in the domestic market. In total, 363,184,941 liters of wines, sparkling wines, juices and other grape derivatives were marketed. The figures are from the Brazilian Wine Institute (Ibravin).
In quiet wines, sales were positive at 2.19%, with 189.3 million liters marketed. The sparkling wines increased volume by 3.22%, with 17.4 million liters, and the 100% ready-to-consume grape juice were the items that showed a better performance, with an increase of almost 16% compared to the previous year, with 109 million liters sold.
“The beginning of the year was very difficult because we came from a record crop loss (occurred in 2016), which increased production costs, reduced the supply of products, along with an economic and political crisis that left the market quite withdrawn. This situation began to dissipate only from the third quarter onwards, “says Ibravin President Oscar Ló.” Since then, the sparkling wines and juices, products in which we are more competitive, were already in better sales than in 2016, but it was the last three months of the year that we actually recovered the results, “adds the leader.
Last year, 32% of total sales were made between October and December. Marcio Ferrari, vice-president of Ibravin, observes that, starting in the middle of the year, with the entry of products made from the new harvest – historical record in Rio Grande do Sul, with 753 million kilos – there was a cooling in costs and consequently in the prices offered to the consumer, as well as an improvement in the economic perspective in the Country. With the result, in the domestic market, the national labels maintained the participation of 61.5% in wine sales and 71% in the sparkling wines .
Adding sales of Brazilian products to import volumes, the wine market expanded by 13%. Last year, approximately 125.8 million liters of wines and sparkling wines were added in the country, representing an increase of 36.6% compared to 2016. Grape juice, in turn, declined 18.7%, with the entry of 226, 5 thousand liters.
For that year, the outlook is to increase the positive results started in the last quarter of 2017 due to the normalization of inventories and to the products elaborated from the 2018 harvest, considered of excellence in quality. However, in order to increase market competitiveness, the sector works to withdraw the wine from the Tax Replacement (ST) regime.
Earlier this month, during the launch of Wines South America, an international fair to be held in September in Bento Gonçalves, Ló requested that the government of Rio Grande do Sul lead a movement to end the ST. “Rio Grande do Sul, as the country’s largest producer of grapes and wines, has to set an example with Confaz (Conselho Nacional de Política Fazendária). We are not asking for a reduction in tax rates, although this is also a big lawsuit in the industry. What we are looking for is a change in the form of ICMS taxation, which by the regime established mainly affects the wine companies. Several units of the Federation are already changing their legislation and eliminating ST, since with the existing instruments for fiscal control, the early collection of the tax is not justified. We are sure that with this measure, there will be no loss of collection and may establish a stimulus to further increase sales in the domestic market, “he said. The states of Bahia, Pernambuco, Goiás, Maranhão and Pará have already withdrawn the ST mechanism for the wines.