Today, Macedonian wineries produce 108,000 tons of wine, which is equivalent to 220 million litres, placing the country in 25th place in the world in wine production. France, Spain and Italy hold the top three places in the world. The official domestic consumption is just over 10 million litres. In other words, 5% of Macedonian wine production is used for domestic consumption. It also forms a picture of how much wineries depend on exports.
One of the issues faced by Macedonian wine exporters is that the name Macedonia is either unknown or not associated with quality wine. For the export of keg wine, this is not an issue because that wine is subject to the law “at the lowest price”. But for quality wine exporters, this is an issue. In the world market, which is overwhelmed by wine production, it would be a huge advantage if the origin of wine is associated with quality, as is the case with France and Italy. Since this is not the case for our country, our wines achieve very low prices and sales.
Another issue faced by Macedonian wineries is the fact that the country will have to abolish wine import taxes this year. This means that Macedonian wineries will experience increased foreign competition, which will be able to sell its wines at lower prices. Due to this, the prices of many Macedonian wines will have to be reduced, and therefore the profits of many of the wineries.
