2026-09-08
Argentina’s wine industry is exporting more volume in 2026, but the rebound has not reversed a longer loss of ground in world trade, and Mendoza, the country’s main wine-producing province, remains well below the export levels it posted more than a decade ago.
That picture comes from an IERAL report by Fundación Mediterránea cited by Bloomberg Línea, which said Argentina’s share of global wine exports fell from a peak of 4.7% in 2008 to 2.1% in 2025. That was a drop of 2.6 percentage points, or 55.3% of the country’s former share of the market.
The report shows a clear gap between shipment growth and revenue growth this year. In the first half of 2026, Argentina’s wine export volume rose 14% from a year earlier, but export value increased only 3%. The average price fell by about 10%, largely because bulk wine accounted for a bigger share of shipments.
That means the increase in liters sold abroad did not produce a similar improvement in export earnings. The report says the recent recovery in volume does not amount to a full economic recovery for the sector, especially for higher-value bottled wines from Mendoza.
In Mendoza, exports of bottled varietal wines in the first half of 2026 were 36% lower than in the same period of 2010, according to the report. The real price obtained for those wines was also 7% below the 2010 level. Bloomberg Línea said the study did not specify the deflator used to calculate that real price, and it did not provide absolute figures for liters exported or revenue.
The report places Argentina’s decline in a broader international context. Global wine consumption fell from 244 million hectoliters in 2017 to 208 million hectoliters in 2025, a reduction of 36 million hectoliters, or 15%. That contraction helps explain part of the pressure facing exporters. But the study argues it does not explain the whole picture, because Argentina also lost market share within a smaller global market.
According to the report, Argentina started the century with about 1.3% of world wine exports, then expanded strongly and reached its high point near the end of the 2000s. Since then, the broader trend has been downward, with only temporary recoveries, until the country’s share settled at about 2.1% in 2025.
For Mendoza, the decline is significant because the province has long been the center of Argentina’s wine industry and the main source of its better-known export labels, especially Malbec. The data suggest that even when the national industry ships more product abroad, the mix of what it sells matters. More bulk wine can lift volume without improving unit prices or restoring the earnings that bottled premium wines once generated.
The report attributes part of the longer-term decline to weaker exchange-rate competitiveness. It says the sharp rise in the real exchange rate after Argentina left the convertibility regime in the early 2000s coincided with the period when the country was gaining share in global wine trade. Over time, that advantage faded, and exports lost momentum.
IERAL also points to domestic costs. The study says labor, packaging and logistics weigh heavily on wineries, and those costs hurt competitiveness in an industry where margins can be tight. Argentina’s distance from major consumer markets adds to transport costs, and its smaller commercial scale can limit its ability to negotiate expenses and sustain investment abroad.
The report also says product strategy is part of the challenge. International demand has been changing, with more interest in white and rosé wines, fresher styles, lower-alcohol products and newer formats. Argentina remains strongly concentrated in red wine, and especially in Malbec. According to the study, a slower adjustment to those changes in demand may have contributed to the country’s declining share of world exports.
That argument suggests the problem is not only the cost of making and shipping Argentine wine. It is also about the type of wine being offered, the price point, and the markets where producers are trying to compete.
The first-half figures for 2026 show why that distinction matters. A 14% increase in export volume would normally signal a healthier external market. But with value up only 3% and average prices down about 10%, the data point instead to a weaker sales mix. More wine left the country, but more of it was lower-priced bulk product.
For Mendoza’s bottled varietal segment, the comparison with 2010 remains difficult. A 36% drop in export volume over that period, combined with a 7% decline in the real price obtained, indicates that the province has not recovered the position it once held in international markets. In practical terms, wineries are selling less of the type of wine that historically built Argentina’s image abroad, and they are earning less for it in inflation-adjusted terms.
The Bloomberg Línea report, published on September 7, said the analysis was based on an earlier IERAL study rather than a new statistical release issued that day. The publication also noted that the source material did not include absolute values for export revenue or shipped liters for the latest period.
Even with those limits, the main trend is clear. Argentina is participating in a global wine market that has been shrinking since 2017, and within that market it now holds less than half the share it reached at its peak. The short-term increase in exported volume in 2026 has so far not changed that broader trajectory, because lower prices and a heavier reliance on bulk wine have kept revenue growth modest while Mendoza’s bottled varietal exports continue to lag far behind earlier levels.