Port yields restricted to reduce stocks

The Port trade’s Inter-Professional Council has restricted Port production for the second year running to dramatically reduce stocks.

Yields for this year’s harvest will limit total Port production to 671,000 hectolitres, which is nearly 20% below estimated Port sales of 825,000hl for 2012.

According to Paul Symington, joint managing director of Symington Family Estates, higher quality vineyards will have less of a yield reduction than the standard quality vineyards.

He also stressed that the decision, announced on Monday, follows severe restrictions on Port production in 2011, when just 591,000hl were made and 825,000hl were sold – which represented a shortfall of 28%.

Commenting on measures to end an oversupply situation in the Douro, he wrote in the July edition of the drinks business, “By January 2013, Port stocks will be at their lowest levels since the 1990s.

“The stock excess that has plagued the Douro for a decade will have disappeared.”

Having contacted the drinks business after 2012’s restrictions were announced, he noted that “Port sales worldwide are currently 3.7% up to the end of May 2012 and Port exports to the UK are up 21% (due partly to the phasing of shipments).

“Total Port sales MAT to 1 June 2012 are up 1% ­– this is a good performance in the current economic climate,” he added.

The July edition of the drinks business – out this week – has a focus on Port, including an article on Port shippers’ attempts to develop sales in Asia and a comment piece by Paul Symington on the challenges facing fortified wine producers in the Douro.