Impressive growth in the demand for cider in the global markets has put it squarely back on the beverage alcohol map, attracting a younger, more affluent consumer, according to the Rabobank Wine Quarterly Q3 report.
"In the past decade, the cider category has gone a long way to discard its old fashioned image and connect with a new wave of consumers," says Rabobank beverage analyst Marc Soccio.
Cider Highlights in the Wine Quarterly
- Impressive growth in demand for cider in New World markets has put it squarely back on the alcoholic beverage map.
- The relative appeal of cider to younger consumers-both male and female-presents a real threat to competing alcoholic beverage categories.
- Cider might be consumed more like beer, but the wine industry needs to come to terms with the fact that cider is not solely a threat to the beer category.
"Not unlike the rise of craft beer before it, the recent success of cider producers in tapping into a seemingly ready and growing global market for their products has provided further evidence of rising segmentation within many maturing beverage alcohol markets," says Soccio. Sensing the opportunity, new and existing suppliers are busily testing the boundaries of the cider category with a surge in product innovation and marketing activity.
"The impact might still be at the margin, but wine companies need to seriously consider what might lead their current and future consumers astray as cider once again enters the big leagues in key markets at home and abroad," says Soccio.
Regional outlook
Outside of Western Europe, the North American, South African, Australian and New Zealand markets are quickly expanding as consumers begin to explore the cider category with greater interest. A trend that is likely to continue.
Global wine consumption is estimated to have fallen modestly by 1 percent in 2014, while global wine supply is estimated to have fallen by nearly 5 percent from the bumper 2013 crop. The countries largely behind the fall in supply were Italy (-17 percent), Spain (-6 percent) and Chile (-18 percent).
Wine producers will be looking intently at the size of the global harvest in 2015 to relieve supply pressure on mainstream wine segments.
