StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
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StateWays | www.stateways.com | July/August 2016 35 population and low per-capita consumption made exports the only viable path to growth for Chile's wine industry. Government programs encouraged a wave of winery con- solidation and pushed larger companies to take their wines abroad. A thirsty global market responded, and in the last 20 years, Chile's planted vineyard area and production have more than doubled to meet demand. Exports skyrocketed from 27% of total production in 1994 to a staggering 79% in 2014, of which one-third comes to the US. In some years, up to half of Chile's total exports have been in bulk, generating very little profi t, but now a new, concerted effort is underway to raise Chile's profi le as a fi ne wine producer by exporting more premium bottled wines. Doing so is within its means, and will reduce dependence on fi ckle currency markets. Chile's total bulk exports dropped by 21% in 2014, according to the USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service, but total export volume, value and FOB prices per liter of non-bulk wine continue to increase steadily year on year. By contrast, the Argentine Malbec boom that arrived with the new millennium was not planned, but rather the direct result of an economic catastrophe. Though Argentina had long been a larger producer of wine than Chile, higher population and much higher per capita consumption gave vintners few incentives to sell overseas. However, the re- cession that caused Argentina to default on its national debt in 2001 left wineries with no choice but to sell their excep- tional wines abroad at low cost. Just as Argentine wines were peaking, international markets were spooked again recently when Argentina's notoriously volatile economy faltered. But 2016 has brought increasing economic stability under a new government, to the relief of Ar- gentina's wine producers. "President Macri's policies are taking Argentina in a new di- EXPORTS SKYROCKETED FROM 27% OF TOTAL PRODUCTION IN 1994 TO A STAGGERING 79% IN 2014, OF WHICH ONE-THIRD COMES TO THE U.S.