The competitiveness of Spanish wine industry at the wine’s globalization

Abstract

This paper analyzes the international competitiveness of the Spanish wine industry during the «wine globalization». The comparative advantage through the Revealed Comparative Advantage Index (RCA) or Balassa Index and the behavior of the wines types, and the relative weight of exports in volume, value and unit prices in the world market since the 1960’s are examined. The article reports increasing exports of bottled quality wines with Appellations of Origin and, overall, wine exports growth in recent decades. Spanish wine industry has become a net exporter, challenging the fall in domestic consumption and increased foreign competition; however, the bases of its competitiveness are low-cost wines, quality economic wines, and particularly bulk wines, which show higher dynamism in the last decade.