GLOBAL WINE PRODUCTION is expected to rebound slightly in 2025 after falling last year to its lowest level since 1961 due to the impact of climate change, according to the intergovernmental organisation overseeing the sector.

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said output is set to be up 3% at 232 million hectolitres, based on preliminary figures from 29 countries accounting for 85% of global production.

“Yet output remains well below recent averages, confirming a period of persistently reduced global supply, impacted by climatic challenges and evolving consumption models,” the OIV said.

Production has been hit by environmental extremes such as above average rainfall in some key regions and droughts in others, even as worldwide consumption fell last year to the lowest level in more than 60 years, with sales of 214.2 million hectolitres.

Europe saw a two percent output increase to 140 million hectolitres, but remained below its multi-year average.

“Production – though marginally higher than in 2024 – was still below average, constrained by France’s small harvest, Spain’s persistent drought, and adverse weather conditions in Portugal and Germany,” the agency said.

In the Southern Hemisphere, production dropped 10 percent in Chile, its fourth straight year of declines, but jumped 11 percent in Australia.

Overall, “the 2025 climatic pattern underscores the increasing variability between and within” the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, “with favourable conditions in some areas insufficient to offset weather-related losses elsewhere.”

Scientists have been hard at work trying to find ways to maintain the production of items such as wine and chocolate in the face of losses brought about by drastically changing weather.

This has included geoengineering as a way to cool the planet, including a hypothetical process to inject highly reflective particles into the stratosphere to cool the Earth’s surface.

In a recent study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the scientists found that although the process could bring down temperatures, it could not consistently preserve the conditions needed for successful cultivation of the crops.

With reporting by PA and – © AFP2025