Overall, the 1990´s were beneficial to the Port Wine sector, confirming a growth of 18% between 1990 and 1999 of the total amount of Port Wine sold.
This positive evolution attainsits maximum expression in 2000, wich so far has been the best year ever in terms of quantity sold (957000 hl) and the first year in wich the volume of the trade for the sector exceeded the 400.000.000 €.
The years that followed in the mew millennium, were affected by several factors having a negative effect on the sales of Port Wine, most especially:
The major disturbances in international trade that followed the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks on the USA;
The weak evolution of the world economy, notably in the Euro zone, where some countries on recession, as was the case of Portugal;
The appreciation of the Euro against currencies of several important Port Wine markets, especially The USA and UK;
The concentration of worldwide distribution, with the consequent reduction of the Port Wine companies ability to negotiate.
All this contributed to a negative compound average annual growth in the quantity of Port Wine sold between 2000 and 2004.
For this current year (2012) there is a increasing of more 11500 barrels (550 liters) than the last year.
There is also a general hope in all the Port Wine trade that the sales will rise next year.
