In the first half of 2023, total wine imports in Russia increased by around 6% compared to 2022, reports international media based on data from the state news agency New China (Xinhua). According to this, around 30% of wine imports come from Italy, followed by Georgia (17%), Spain (13%) and France (8%). In 2022, the EU exported a total of around 3 million hl to Russia. The war-related embargo on EU exports only affects luxury goods, such as expensive appellation wines. Italy reported a significant increase in wine exports to Russia as early as 2022.
ÖWM also confirms the increase in export values of Austrian wines to Russia in the first half of 2023. In terms of volume, there were almost 2,700hl in the first half of this year, compared to 1,200hl in the first half of 2022 (+125%) . The value in Austria was around 650,000 euros in the first half of 2023; in the first half of 2022 it was just under 400,000 euros (+66%). During the entire year 2022, Austria exported around 7,950 hl to Russia, worth around 2 million euros.
However, AWM points out that there are no official import statistics from Russia since the start of the war. Furthermore, wines from Austria are often imported to other EU countries or third countries (Baltics, Cyprus, UK) before going to Russia. This means that they cannot be found in Austrian statistics as direct exports to Russia.