The structural change in the German wine branch is gaining momentum. From 1999 to 2009, the number of small wine growers with less than five hectares of vineyard area has decreased by approximately 20,000 growers or about 30%. The consolidation in the previous 10 years has been only half as great. This year there were 48,009 practicing growers. These are the results announced by the German Wine Institute (GWI) based on a survey from the Federal Bureau for Statistics.

GWI-Director Monika Reule confirms that despite the consolidation, the total vineyard area in Germany has remained stable since 1999. "We have been experiencing an enormous consolidation process in the wine branch that is being further driven by a generation change. This has resulted in the number of growers with over five vineyard hectares increasing over the last ten years by 1.5% to reach a number of approximately 6,000. This development mirrors the increasing professionalism in the branch," states the DWI-Director.

The greatest consolidations with around 40% of the growers exiting the market has been experienced in Mittelrhein, Rheingau, Mosel, Pfalz and Rheinhessen. The development in the number of growers in Saale-Unstrut is opposite the trend. The number of wine growers in the eastern German wine-growing area has grown by 146 to achieve a total of 679 growers. Also worthy of note is that the vineyard area has increased by 90 hectares since 1999.

The average winegrower is not only dependant on how well the vineyard area can be mechanized, but also on historic economic structures. In topographically flatter winegrowing areas such as Rheinhessen and Pfalz where much of the vineyard work can be done mechanically, the average size of a winegrower is six to eight hectares. Due to the labour-intensive steep vineyard sites that dominate the Mosel and Mittelrhein, the average size of a grower there is only around two hectares. 80% of the winegrowers in Baden and W�rttemberg are organized into cooperatives. Many of the cooperative growers grow wine only as a sideline to another profession, which explains their average size of only one hectare. With an average size of only 0.2 hectares in Sachsen (Saxony), winegrowing there is for the majority of growers merely a hobby.

An overview of the development of wine growers since 1989 including a differentiated observation of the number of growers is organized according to winegrowing area here.