Rodrigo Lanari, Wine Intelligence Country Manager for Brazil, and editor of the new Brazil Routes to Market report, reveals how the wine category is staging a renaissance in this populous but troubled BRIC country
Brazil has spent a lot of the 21st Century as front page news across the world. It has spent time as a shining example of the BRIC* economic growth miracle, and also won the right to stage the world’s two biggest showcase events: the World Cup and the Olympics. But more recently the story has changed to one of political scandal, corruption, urban poverty and criminal violence.
Despite the negative news of the past few years, Brazilians’ resilience and optimism is hard to equal. With a smile in the face and a bit of samba, life moves on, as it only can in this extraordinary country.
The recent political and economic crisis was expected to impact the wine business negatively. It certainly changed things, but despite all the noise, the most recent available data on the sector suggests another, more positive story. Total wine consumption didn´t increase until the end of 2016, but it didn´t decrease either. Brazilian consumers kept on raising their glasses and the pressured industry evolved into more professionalization, consolidation and, most importantly, innovation. Evidence of progress came in 2017, when total still wine consumption jumped around 8%, making it the highest growth rate among the largest wine markets in the world.
In such context, Wine Intelligence has produced its latest report about the Brazilian market – Brazil Routes to Market 2018 – which aims to unpick some of the mysteries about the Brazilian wine market supply chain and reveal the opportunities and tools for those wanting to compete effectively with their wines in the largest economy of Latin America.
In a nutshell, three important things have happened in Brazil to change the game:
- Better modernisation levels and geographical reach of distribution networks has allowed wine distribution to become much more efficient
- Growth of online shopping channels, including the e-commerce channel, which has been driven by the development of a faster online shopping experience.
- Growing demand amongst Millennials, increased professionalism in the retail and on-trade sector and an anticipated growth in the wine tourism industry.
To expand point two, the online channel has managed to establish itself as a disintermediator of inefficient supply chains, as it has taken advantage of beneficial (but hideously complex) tax systems and cut out the middle-man. This channel alone accounted directly for about 15% of all wine imports to Brazil in 2017, against 10% in 2016. This report explores and documents the main players in this important and growing channel.
These are all topics we tried to explore in this exciting, but complex, market that is still wrapped in lots of uncertainty towards the future, but has potential to develop and grow further.
Author: Rodrigo Lanari
Email: rodrigo@wineintelligence.com
*Brazil, Russia, India, China
