Wine in Croatia

PROSPECTS

While exports struggle, imports continue to grow

Croatia is a traditional wine-making country, but not able to break into the markets of the EU. While some blame this on overwhelming competition from global giants like Italy, Spain or France, others point out that Croatia has not yet positioned its wines on the global wine map, nor invested enough in their promotion.

New World wines progressing slowly, but persistently

When Croatia gained its independence and opened up its market, New World wines were big news. However, the initial curiosity petered out and New World wines have since been increasing their share only very slowly, mostly being limited to a small layer of the urban working population and with bottles purchased as gifts.

Domestic winemakers reluctant to lower their prices

An independent survey has shown that about 90% of all adults had a sip of wine at least once during the past year. This explains the sense of pride local winemakers have in their products and the reluctance to adjust their prices to the needs of the market.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Need for further consolidation

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

“Unstoppable importers” mostly Croatian-owned

While some observers frown upon the trend of rising imports of cheaper wines, prevalently from countries bordering the east of Croatia, the local industry has been much more pragmatic; local players simply ventured into acquiring equity in some wineries in Macedonia, practically making the import business a domestic business.

Private label fighting against economy brands

There is only one retailer investing notable efforts into private label wines, and that is the discounter Lidl Hrvatska doo kd. It started ambitiously with New World wines, but it soon became obvious that it would not succeed with these products alone, as other retailers countered with no-name European economy brands.

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