Despite two significant challenges, U.S. A wine exports in 2014 hit near-record levels in volume and dollar value. These are important benchmarks since 90 percent of all exports come from California, according to the San Francisco-based Wine Institute.
Exports reached $1.49 billion in 2014, which is the second highest dollar value for U.S. wine exports and a 64 percent increase from five years ago. This translates into 49.2 million cases shipped to ports all over the world. Both value and volume could have set records if not for a strong dollar and the West Coast port slowdown that began last July. When the dollar rises against the currency of the importing country, it costs that country more to import U.S. products.
Of the top 10 export markets for California wines, the European Union’s 28-member countries were the largest.