Portuguese wine producers beef up presence in the US

Portugal’s wine promotion organisation ViniPortugal has been carrying out a roadshow in the United States to drum up business and awareness of Portuguese wines.

The US market grew 9.4% in the first two months of the year with the expectation of drumming up new business opportunities says the news agency Lusa.

ViniPortugal, an inter-professional organisation within Vinho de Portugal, took national producers to Chicago on Monday and Houston on Wednesday. On April 15 it will be in New York, and San Francisco on April 18 in a bid to identify business opportunities and increase awareness about Portuguese wines.

“The data collected to the end of February shows that we are growing 9.4% compared to 2023 and so we’re on target for a robust growth this year.  Last year, the United Sates market shrank not just for Portugal, but for other countries too”, said the President of ViniPortugal, Frederico Falcão.

“But data from the first two months of the year show that sales to the United States have grown considerably, although we’re not certain that we’ll end the year with this kind of growth, and the market could still retract in relation to the last,” he said.

The US market is the second largest importer of Portuguese wines with a value of €100 million in 2023.

In terms of markets, France was the country that imported the most Portuguese wines, with a value of €103 million, with the UK being the third most important market at €88 million.