The 2008 Economic Crisis in the Spanish Protected Designations of Origin of Wine: Effects and Exit Models

Abstract

The objective is to assess the impact of the recent economic crisis on the Spanish wine Protected Designations of Origin. As it is a sector that produces non necessary goods, the hypothesis is that the crisis has produced significant falls in sales and that, given its duration, has been able to have a negative impact on the productive system itself, that is, on the cultivated area and the winemakers. The study is carried out on two scales: the national one, in which the large figures of the sector are analysed, and the designation one, in which the individual figures of each one are worked on. A quantitative methodology is used, consisting of the statistical analysis of the available data series, accompanied by its cartographic representation. On the national scale there has been a serious impact of the crisis on the sales, but only slight adjustments in productive factors. At the designation scale, the winners and losers have been identified and the existence of two different models of adjustment of the productive factors in the face of the crisis has been confirmed.