BarcelonaThe cava sector has closed the first nine months of 2024 with a decline in production and, by extension, sales, due to the drought that has affected some of the producing areas such as Penedès over the last three years, according to explained today the president of the regulatory council of the Denomination of Origin (DO) Cava, Javier Pagés. In addition, the lower amount of product has meant that sales prices have risen between 10% and 15% in relation to the first three quarters of 2023.
Specifically, sales between January and September of this year fell by 12.2%, from 170 million bottles in the same period of 2023 to 149 million this 2024. The fall was more pronounced in the international market, with a reduction of 15.8%, while the Spanish market fell by 3.6%.
The reduction in sales is mainly due to lower production caused by the lack of rain that has affected much of Catalonia and other parts of the Iberian Peninsula. The 2024 harvest ended with 219 million kilos of grapes, 28% less. “Because there are fewer grapes, there is less cava,” summarized Pagés, who lamented that the drop in production comes at a time when sparkling wine is gaining market share around the world.
Pagés has been “more optimistic” about the coming months thanks to the recent and abundant rains in the Penedès this October and November, which have partially alleviated the effects of the drought, but which did not arrive in time before the harvest . Despite this, the DO Cava continues to demand that the administrations implement plans to promote the implementation of irrigation systems in the regions most affected by the lack of rain.
The product shortage has had “positive aspects”, according to the president of DO Cava. Thanks to “the higher demand than the available product”, both the sales prices and the margins of the wineries “have shown an upward trend, which allows adding value throughout the chain”, he added. This has also increased the price paid to farmers for grapes during the harvest, which has partly compensated for the lower amount of grapes sold.
Strong fall in Germany
By country, the product restriction has affected exports. Specifically, the market where sales decreased the most was Germany, which accounts for 60% of all the drop in exports. A key factor to explain it is the change announced in March by Freixenet – the first cava producer in production and whose majority shareholder is the German company Henkell – that it would stop exporting cava to the German market in order to sell an alternative sparkling wine. Russia also suffered a notable setback, of 20.8%.
With the decline in Germany, Belgium became the number one market for cava despite suffering a 3.6% reduction in sales, with 14.3 million bottles between January and September. The United States, with 12 million bottles, was the second country where wineries exported the most.
