Bumper year for Murcia vineyards

The grape harvest is 8% up on 2012, and exports have been growing for a decade

This year’s wine-making grape harvest in the Region of Murcia is estimated at a total of 98,329 tons, an increase of 8.3% on the figure recorded last year.
The figures collated from local agrarian and statistical associations suggest that the favourable climatic conditions in 2013 have encouraged the growth of more bunches containing larger grapes, and this trend has been observed for all strains of grape grown in the Region.

Red wine grapes account for 96% of all those cultivated in the Region of Murcia, and 82% is made up of the Monastrell harvest alone.
Last year the Region’s wine exports totalled 1.4 million hectolitres and brought in 154.6 million euros to the regional economy, and hopes will be high that these figures can be beaten this year after the encouraging harvest. This is especially so as the regional agriculture ministry reports that for the last three years wine exports have been growing “appreciably”, and are now at a higher level than in the previous ten years.

The selling price of wine from Murcia is also gradually rising, and last year it reached 1.10€ per litre wholesale. This is the highest in the last ten years, and if the trend continues the coming production season bodes well for the Region’s wineries.