The wine and spiritual drinks industry in the UK is forced to adapt to “seismic change” after nearly a decade of responding to successive individual issues, WSTA told an industrial surrounding at the wine exhibition in London, where the government urged to provide a “difficult commitment to economic growth.”
Speaking at a press conference at the London Wine Fair, the CEO of WSTA Miles Bell told the industry that since 2016, the industry had to face a series of dominant individual issue: from preparing and dealing with Brexit to the influence and recovery of Kovid, a review of the duty and the vote guarantee by the new UK government.
“But it seems different in 2025”, as indicated, from increasing geopolitical tensions around the world, to the markets to which the risks of global trade wars undermined confidence and reduce growth expectations, which represents “many issues that threaten to disrupt trade in wine at the global, regional and national levels. “
“The global free trade model is shouting,” he said, and it seems that the world was “heading to a world where immigration is restricted and supply chains will be shorter.” However, Bell said that he did not participate in the opinion that the world “changed mainly”, on the pretext that there will be more signed bilateral agreements (as described in the United Kingdom and India's recent agreement) as well as participation in trading groups.
“The international trading system has not been broken, but it has changed,” he said, noting that the pendulum “is still swinging and it will take time to see where it will settle.”
How will all this affect the United Kingdom?
However, the UK's wine trade is traditionally affected by the non-carrier barriers of customs tariffs, as he said-you may see the result of the European Union agreement, which is expected later today, through the final reforms that will reduce this, as well as disrupt the broader economy that suffocates growth and reduces consumer confidence. “
“If this government is serious in developing the economy, then it is time to see a hard commitment to economic growth,” he said, and indicated that until now there was “no measure of measurable benefits.”
The UK must join WWG, for example, without any other delay and start listening to the industry and communicating with it at an early stage.
He said: “It is time for the government to listen – it's not an opposite, all hands should be for the pump.”
Bell said that it was “amazed” that the reform of the Al -Makous that was placed under the Prime Minister of the Conservative Party was paid through the government of the Labor Party in Kiir Starmer, which “chose not” avoiding the costs of the huge management and the additional red tape of this industry – and “cold comfort has been proven” for the results of not making the trip permanently. .
Whether it is the imminent EPR scheme, return deposit plans (DRS) or wine reforms “the government needs to understand how its actions affect companies throughout the UK.”
He said that the cost without consulting is “no recipe for economic growth” and to achieve economic growth, the current government needs a “better understanding of business” and takes time to consult while plans instead of the subsequent idea. Not doing this means that companies “will slip to the station's decline.”
UK industry scale and scale
However, there is still a great reason for hope, as Bell refers to the current range and the scope of the wine and spirit industry in the United Kingdom. After all, the UK remains the second largest importer of wine in size after Germany (and is already “peeling in the aftermath of Germany”) is also the second largest importer of value after the United States (“at the present time”) in addition to being the largest source of lives.
Last year, the UK imported more than 1.25 billion liters of wine (equivalent to 1.7 billion 750Cl bottles), but most consumers are still completely unaware of both “great contribution” to the industry, which adds about 33 billion pounds to the British economy. This includes about 8.9 billion pounds from GVA, and it supports about 200,000 employees, but the rich history of importing wine, which dates back to the twelfth century, and the breadth of the industry is still largely invisible. He pointed out that the UK bottles exceeded wine in large quantities more than the total annual production of wine from Bordeaux (about 500 million ml of fixed wine), which creates jobs and provides sales of additional value, in addition to providing large quantities of carbon, – about 25,000 tons of carbon emissions that were saved in the shipping of loose wine from Australia and New Zi INDINA.
He said: “We are economically important, but we were very humble, we narrate the stories of these companies and encourage the economic importance of the wider economy.” “There is a fully invisible infrastructure that supports the trade that most customers do not know happily.”
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