Wine in Croatia

PRE-COVID-19 PERFORMANCE

New Wine Act gets passed to reduce administration and provide financial support to domestic winemakers

In wine, news revolves more around winemakers than wines per se. The government gave in to persistent demands from winemakers and passed a new legislative act on wine in 2019.

New World wines remain niche with traditionalist Croatians, despite small year on year growth

New World wines have shown constant growth year on year, but recent numbers reveal that it is still far away from any significance. About 250,000 litres were imported in 2019, mostly red and rosé; however, it is challenging for New World to compete with the strong wine regions of Mediterranean.

Agrokor dd, Badel 1862 dd, and Kutjevo continue to lead wine, as category becomes more consolidated

Euromonitor International does not have data for company and brand shares in wine, but there are strong indicators about the leading three companies in the category. Their growth comes from acquiring local or regional wine cooperatives, which mostly went bankrupt during the transition period to an open sales environment.

2020 AND BEYOND

COVID-19 impact

On-trade volume sales of wine are expected to fall by 31% in 2020 in light of the impact of COVID-19. This compares to an expected 2% rise forecast for 2020 during research conducted in May 2019, i.

Affected products within wine

Wine has been somewhat affected by the seasonal loss in summer trade; but a more significant impact has been from the decline in tourist inflows, as sales in wine are strongly driven by tourism and the on-trade channels. Additionally, the decline in incomes in both domestic and foreign consumers means that demand in wine is shifting towards the economy segment.

Recovery and opportunities

Wine has fair scope for recovery as, whilst it is a seasonal summer drink (light sparkling wines, for example), it is also consumed during other seasons of the year, such as Christmas and New Year. It is also easy for consumers to switch from higher-end wines such as champagne, to lower-priced variants such as other sparkling wine, therefore retaining consumption to a degree, although losing some value in the process.

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