Spain's wine exports took a significant hit in the first half of 2026, with volumes falling to their lowest level in a decade even as prices per liter climbed to a new high.
Between January and June, Spain sold €1,560.9 million and 1,125.4 million liters of wine abroad, down from €1,737.4 million and 1,410 million liters in the same period of 2025 — a drop of 10.2% in value and 20.2% in volume, according to data from the State Tax Administration Agency analyzed by the Spanish Wine Interprofessional Organization (OIVE).
Volume losses outpace value losses
In absolute terms, Spain shipped €176.5 million and 284.6 million liters less than a year earlier. Notably, the percentage decline in volume was roughly double that of value, a pattern that defined the sector's performance throughout the first half of the year. When narrowing the analysis to wine alone — excluding aromatized wines, grape must, and vinegar — the decline is somewhat less severe, with exports totaling €1,326.4 million (down 8.2%) and 840 million liters (down 15.8%). OIVE points to a sharp contraction in grape must exports, down 25% in value and 36% in volume, as a key driver of the broader sector's steeper decline. Aromatized wines and vinegar also slipped, falling 7.4% and 5.5% in value respectively.
The weakest half-year volume since 2020
The six-month trend compiled by OIVE places 2026's export volume as the lowest recorded between 2017 and 2026. The previous low point was 2020, at 1.21 billion liters — meaning 2026 came in roughly 85 million liters lower, a decline of about 7%. In value terms, the €1.56 billion figure is the lowest since 2020 and the fourth-lowest of the entire ten-year series.
The comparison becomes even starker against 2024, the strongest year in the dataset, when Spain exported €1.798 billion and 1.459 billion liters in the same period. Two years on, that gap has widened to €237 million (13.2%) in value and 334 million liters (22.9%) in volume. Measured against 2021's peak volume of 1.538 billion liters, the 2026 shortfall balloons to 413 million liters, a decline of nearly 27%.
This slide didn't begin suddenly in 2026. The first half of 2025 had already posted a 3.4% decline in both value and volume compared to 2024's high point. The downturn simply deepened in 2026, particularly on the volume side.
A decade of uneven swings
Looking back across the full series reveals a market that has rarely moved in a straight line. Exports stood at €1.483 billion and 1.371 billion liters in 2017, before value climbed and volume dipped the following year. The pattern reversed in 2019, then both figures fell together in pandemic-hit 2020. A rebound followed in 2021, after which value and volume began to diverge again through 2022 and 2023, before both improved in 2024 — only for the current two-year slide to set in.
Rising prices offset some of the pain
One of the more notable findings is the sharp rise in average price per liter, projected at around €1.39 for the first half of 2026 — the highest level in the entire series, up roughly 12.6% from about €1.23 in 2025 and surpassing the previous peak of €1.30 in 2023. This price increase helps explain why revenue has fallen by proportionally less than volume: with fewer liters sold, each one is fetching considerably more on average. The aggregated data, however, doesn't allow OIVE to attribute the shift to any specific market, format, or wine category.
The trend is perhaps best illustrated by comparing 2021 and 2026 directly. In 2021, Spain earned €1.588 billion from 1.538 billion liters. In 2026, revenue is only €27 million lower — a decline of just 1.7% — despite volume falling by 413 million liters, or nearly 27%. Zooming out to 2017 as a baseline tells a similar story: export value has actually risen by about 5.3% over the decade, even as volume has fallen by nearly 18%, underscoring a structural shift in which value now matters more than sheer quantity in Spain's wine export performance.
Source: Vinetur