More than 1,300 companies and 10,460 workers make up the wine and cava sector in Catalonia. As a whole, they generate an annual business volume of 3,267 million euros. This figure, which has doubled since 2016, is equivalent to 1.2% of GDP, according to a study by the Government.
The report, prepared through Acció, concludes that the Catalan wine and cava sector has a consolidated business fabric, as 81% of the companies have more than 10 years of activity. The study, which concludes that 95% of them are SMEs, takes into account companies linked to activities related to the entire wine and cava process: the cultivation and care of the vineyard, harvesting, winemaking, fermentation, storage, bottling and commercialization.
Of these, 86% are dedicated to the production and elaboration of wine and cava. Thus, wineries emerge as a driving force of the wine ecosystem, concentrating 89% of turnover and 92% of workers. For their part, companies that offer transversal services to the entire value chain represent 8.3%, while distributors and marketers are 5.4%.
The Catalan wine and cava sector is also marked by its export power: 49.5% of the companies in the ecosystem sell abroad. In fact, Catalonia's exports of wines and cavas in 2023 totaled 615 million euros, five times more than the import volume of these products. Germany, the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Japan are the main destinations for Catalan wines and cavas, in a context in which the commitment to sustainability and digitalization place the sector in a transition process also in Catalonia.