9 hours Ago By Rosa Rodon
Donald Trump becoming president of the United States could have a strong impact on a small town surrounded by vineyards in Penedès or Priorat. In our wine sector, they are very interested in Americans drinking Catalan wine, since it is the main export market (12.7% of sales go to it).
If we look at the data from last year, from January to November, wine worth 78.82 million euros had been exported. Then comes the market in the United Kingdom, where many more bottles are exported, but at a much lower value.
The reason is that in the British Isles a lot of volume is sold at a low cost to supply the large supermarkets. However, the American case is different, because what travels is quality wine. Sources in the sector regret that the tax threat comes now that they were "recovering".
The pandemic was good for part of the agri-food sector, but not for wine, which suffered from the closure of restaurants. According to data provided by Prodeca (the public company that promotes the consumption of Catalan products), the current figures are practically those of before Covid, but with an optimistic reading: not so much quantity is exported, but rather higher quality is exported. That is why everyone is looking with stupor and concern at the possibility of Trump imposing tariffs.
Years of work carved in a day In international trade, a single day can destroy the work of many years of effort. This was explained by Laia Villalbí, promoter of Catalan food at Prodeca, during the Barcelona Wine Week fair. The public company of the Generalitat facilitated the arrival of 25 people from the United States: importers, distributors, sommeliers.
.. people who have decision-making power in their regions.
The costs of this promotion are paid with funds from the Catalan government. , a three-year program supported by European funds and shared with Italy, aimed at impacting the American and Chinese markets. One of the people who has enjoyed this support is Núria Garrote, a mechanical engineer who went to live in Detroit to work in the automotive sector.
But life had other plans for her, since she fell in love with an American who sold French wines and ended up falling in love with wine as well. She has been importing Spanish wine for 15 years in the Great Lakes area, in North Carolina and South Carolina through her importer VinoVi&Co. There she has found a receptive audience for Catalan wine, since she maintains that "the American is an open-minded consumer.
He likes to listen and learn." The trip to Barcelona allowed her to visit, either at the fair or , the wineries with which she already works. And also, to add new ones.
Last year Núria Garrote incorporated two Catalans, Casa Jou and Mas de la Pansa, and one from La Rioja. But this year she admits that she is proceeding with great caution due to the uncertainty. "If Trump imposes the tariffs and they stay for many months, it could sink us.
The first person it will affect will be the winery because we will put the brakes on. There will be no orders. If we see that it is not resolved, we will have to negotiate lower prices with the wineries; we will see the consumer go, there are no such margins.
We have already experienced it and it is outrageous," warns Garrote. The result, she fears, is that people will simply consume wines from other places. "In the markets where I am, people don't go into a restaurant and say today I'm going to drink a Cuenca de Barberà or a Montsant.
People say a white or a rosé. In the United States, you have wines from all over the world and the consumer will not stop drinking wine." Stocking up in case tariffs arrive Garrote points out that stock will be essential to withstand the first wave of demand while waiting for better times.
She has six months of stock, and the big distributors have more. If you add to that the time that the wine spends in shops and restaurants, there is still a bit more to be had. It must also be taken into account that wine is not cheap in the United States: a bottle that importers buy for 4 or 5 euros can cost 60 on the restaurant menu.
In fact, the price of wine by the glass can be equivalent to that of a bottle in Barcelona. According to her, the American market is still very attractive and she has never found anyone who does not want to work because "it is a market of 50." However, sources familiar with the sector say that, if the measure is implemented, "some wineries will have to decide whether they want to be in the market even if they temporarily lose money while waiting for the situation to reverse.
" If buyers are reluctant to incorporate new wineries, the movement is quite the opposite. They are bringing forward their planned purchases. Thus, if the measure comes into force, the wine will already be on American soil and will have avoided the tax.
This is confirmed by Joan Cusiné, co-owner of Parés Baltà, who has received pre-emptive orders from clients who wanted to expand the . And another fact reinforces it, the one given a few days ago by the Port of Barcelona. The United States is the second destination, behind China, of the total exports made from the Port of Barcelona, with 7% of all the containers that leave.
In January, due to fear of the trade war, exports to this country have increased by 30%, according to the president of the Port, José Alberto Carbonell, who believes that "it is difficult to draw conclusions about what will happen" with the trade war, but points out that Trump's tariff policy "is not good news for trade." Reasons not to be overcome by pessimism In the midst of this storm, the work continues and Joan Cusiné received a visit from the Americans attached to the program at the Parés Baltà winery (Pacs del Penedès) . Making an impact on the American market takes time and money.
Especially getting them to come. That's why they are happy that the trip is made easier for them because it allows them to show their way of working, since they are not going "to sell for price", and what they want is to tell them everything that is behind it: "Biodynamic cultivation, hand-made harvests..
. we are artisans," describes Cusiné, who remembers that wine explains the landscape so much that when someone wants to make the landscape so much that when someone wants to. The visit went well for them because they have already received a first order from that group that came for the BWW.
From a store in New York, specifically. These actions are fundamental for small and medium-sized companies that do not have "the budgets of the big ones," explains Cusiné, who sells 15% of the bottles in the United States and 60% of the production abroad. It is a sector in which there is a lot of competition.
For Cusiné, the possibility of tariffs is a real danger. "He already did it at the end of the mandate and Biden only suspended them," he laments. "Those who buy our wines will have to pay more.
And the restaurants where we have them by the glass, if they raise the price, perhaps they will no longer offer them because we would be out of the price range." In addition, Cusiné exposes other difficulties, such as the decrease in alcohol consumption, the tendency of distributors to reduce the catalogue, or the fact that, for the first time, there are wineries for sale in California, since they have encountered serious financial problems. "The world will not end, but they will make it more difficult for us," explains the winemaker.
However, the efforts made by public companies such as Prodeca are not innocuous even if the situation is unstable. This is confirmed by Núria Garrote, who has seen how the Catalunya Brand is being strengthened in the USA. Joan Cusiné also appeals to optimism: "If we do well and give a good image of the wines of Catalonia, even if they impose taxes on us and in the short term there are fewer sales, people who have had a good experience in our house will remember.
The tariffs will not be for life.".
