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EXPERTS DEFEND THE OPENING OF NEW MARKETS IN ORDER TO IMPORVE COMPETITION WITHIN THE WINE TRADE
2009-11-17 15:48:51
Great participation of the attendees in the exhibition hall, where 150 wineries from 45 wine producing regions from around the world were represented.
Logroño, Spain, 13th November 2009 – The second day of the WineFuture Rioja ’09 conference saw the speakers discuss the importance of opening new markets within the wine trade in order to retain competition at a global level, given that the current economic crisis is present in almost all social sectors across the globe.
Under the title ‘The crisis in the Off-Trade – New Strategies’, his second talk since the start of the conference, Mel Dick, President of the South Beach Food and Wine Festival, discussed what is needed to create new strategies in the current economic climate. Dick described the present climate in North America as a sector in which, even within the same country “there are many different markets and styles of sales and distribution”. The North American worked out that there are 32 different markets there. “The leader in wine sales is California, with a total of 53million hectolitres consumed within the USA, followed by Florida and New York with 24million.” With regards to the North American Market, Dick told the conference that 6% of the wine drunk in the USA is from Spain, and that those from Rioja have a good position within the market. To finish, Dick highlighted the fundamental points for improving sales “understand the market that the producers are targeting, know the sector that are interested, education, the close relationship between wine and food, and look for expert distributors to enter into the market”.
On the other hand, Christian Barre, Director General of Domecq Bodegas, established the importance of big and small markets “because wineries must decide why it is they are producing wine: for pleasure or to make money”. “It is clear that in order to make profits, a winery needs to enter into the larger markets, but they can also develop brands that are much more specialised whose aim is to enter into reduced and limited markets”, explains Barre. With respect to brands, he argued that “despite entering the larger markets, producers must still respect their identity and origins, and develop their market strategy with regards to the marketing of their own brand, their DNA, who they are”. Quim Vila, Director of Vinavilateca , continued with a similar sentiment: “With the label, for example, it should be attractive, and this could even mean adapting it to the different sectors of society who drink the wine”.
One of the most outstanding features of WineFuture – Rioja ’09, is the coming together in the same place of more than 40 different nationalities to talk about their current situation and what the future may have in place for them. Indeed, in the second round of morning talks of WineFuture, speakers such as Lisa Perotti-Brown, Master of Wine and Don St. Pierre, from ASC Fine Wines, outlined the challenges of emerging markets such as China, Japan, Scandinavia or Russia. It is in this last country that “Spanish wines enter with more force and more well known” commented Dimitri Pinsky in his talk.
Esteban Cabezas, Marketing Director of the Wine Academy, organiser of the event, was overwhelming with his references to the ways of selling a product to the consumer: “The communication that is being carried out to promote wine is minimal, and that is of poor quality”. At the same time, Cabezas defended the structure of the same sector by saying: “There does not exist an industry like the wine industry”.
The exhibition hall: 150 wineries show off their latest products
WineFuture – Rioja ’09 had an area specifically for exhibitors and companies from the sector that the whole conference could access. The main entrance hall of RiojaForum, which covers an area of 5,300m2, was set up as an exhibition show room with 102 stands representing 150 wineries form all over the world. During the lunch and coffee breaks between the conferences, the companies exchanged information about their products, forming commercial relationships between the professionals of the industry and the consumers.
In this way, WineFuture – Rioja ’09 put an open space at the disposal of companies from the sector, as well as attendees of the conferences to show off the variety of different wines and styles from the major wine producing regions of the world. Spain had the largest number of exhibitors, but there was also a large presence of wines from France, Chile, the USA, Brazilian, Australian, German and Portuguese, to name but a few examples.