Port, Douro wine sales hit record of €600M in 2021

Port and Douro wine sales reached “record figures” of €600 million in 2021, representing €403 million in exports and a growth of 12.4%, it was announced on Monday.

“It was truly historic, especially in terms of exports, but there is still a great deal of promotion, protection and training work to be done to conquer new markets,” said the president of the Institute of Douro and Port Wines (IVDP), Gilberto Igrejas, quoted in a statement.

According to data released by the public institute, total sales of port and Douro wines in 2021 reached “record figures” of €600 million.

Igrejas noted that “the domestic market, as a result of the decrease in tourism, is showing a slight loss in port wine” and stressed that “it is therefore urgent to attract the Portuguese, reiterating the promotional focus on younger age groups”.

In terms of export turnover, port represented last year “more than €330 million and Douro wine more than €70 million”.

The institute said that wines produced in the oldest demarcated and regulated region in the world “reinforced their dominant position in the ‘ranking’ of Portuguese exports in the sector, including two wines in the ‘top three’ and registering a total growth of 12.4 per cent, above the total average for Portuguese wine exports”.

Portuguese wine exports totalled “a new high of €926 million” in 2021.

The IVDP noted that Port “holds a 36% share of total exports, while overseas sales of all wines from the Douro Demarcated Region accounted for 44% of that total”.

“If we limit ourselves exclusively to exports of wines with designation of origin, the figures rise to around 58% in the case of port, and 70% for wines from the region,” the institute added in the statement.