Argentina's wine industry shipped noticeably more wine abroad in the first half of 2026, but a sharp drop in average prices meant that growth in export volume didn't translate into comparable growth in revenue.
That's the picture emerging from provisional data released by the country's National Viticulture Institute (INV), which shows a sector expanding its international footprint while fighting harder for the same returns.
Volume Up Sharply, Revenue Barely Moves
Between January and June, Argentina exported 103 million liters of wine, a 14% increase over the same period in 2025. Revenue from those exports, however, rose only 2.6%, reaching $319 million. The gap between the two numbers tells the real story: average export prices fell 10%, from $3.47 to $3.11 per liter. Producers moved significantly more wine, but each liter earned noticeably less than it did a year earlier.
White Wines Lead the Charge
The strongest growth came from white wine, where exports jumped 47% to 21 million liters — by far the fastest-growing category. Red and rosé wines grew more modestly, up 8% to 81 million liters, still the larger category by volume but a smaller share of the overall growth story.
Bottled Wine Holds Steady, Bulk Wine Swings the Numbers
The clearest divide in the data is between bottled and bulk wine — two segments with very different economics for producers.
Bottled wine, historically the industry's main source of profitability, performed relatively well. Volumes rose 2.4% to 70 million liters, while average prices slipped just 1%, to $4.18 a liter. That relative price stability helped protect margins in the segment that matters most for the industry's bottom line.
Bulk wine told a very different story. Export volumes surged 53% to 33 million liters, making it the single biggest driver of Argentina's overall shipment growth. But the average price for bulk wine collapsed 21%, down to just $0.78 a liter. In other words, bulk sales pushed total export volume higher, but at price points steep enough to drag down the country's overall average.
Taken together, the numbers suggest that much of Argentina's export growth in the first half of the year came from moving more low-priced product overseas — rather than commanding stronger prices for what it was already selling.
Concentrated Must Offers a Brighter Spot
Concentrated grape must — a processed grape product used mainly as an industrial sweetener and juice-blending ingredient — fared better than bulk wine. Export volumes climbed 38% to 48,601 metric tons, while revenue rose 24% to $67 million. Average prices dipped 10%, to $1,389 a ton, but the price decline was far less severe than what bulk wine experienced. Including all must-based products, that segment brought in $73 million in revenue for the half, up 28% year-over-year.
The Bigger Picture
Combining wine and must exports, Argentina generated $392 million in the first half of 2026, a 6.6% increase over the same period last year. It's growth — but growth built more on shifting volume than on stronger pricing power abroad.
The takeaway for the industry is a mixed one. Argentine wine clearly found more buyers internationally in the first half of the year, with white wine and bulk shipments doing the heavy lifting on volume. But with average prices under pressure across nearly every category, producers are having to sell considerably more to earn only marginally more — a dynamic that puts pressure on margins even as export numbers look strong on the surface.
Source: Vinetur