Introduction

The World Wine Cargo Alliance was created by Cargo Club Forwarders’ CEO Montserrat Nomen Brotons in the beginning of 2019. The idea behind this freight forwarders’ network is to gather reliable agents willing to specialize in the transport of wine and other spirits. However, each member is at a different level of specialization, so we also manage other types of commodities (not only beverages).

This is an exclusive alliance, since there is a limit of 2 memberships per country, except for Brazil, China, the USA, India, Russia, and Mexico, due to their geographical extension. The reason for these limitations is that we want the World Wine Cargo Alliance to be an active network in which all members can benefit from cooperation.

The first meeting of the alliance took place from June 27-30th, 2019, in Barcelona.

In 2020 and 2021, given the global pandemic and travel restrictions imposed by multiple governments all around the globe, the WWCA’s team decided to organize a total of three online events which were completely free for the participants.

The first one was held from June 15 to 19, 2020. There were 92 attendees from 77 companies around the world and 733 online one-to-one meetings.

The second was held from April 26 to 29, 2021, on these days, a total of 495 online one-to-one meetings were held. 71 companies from 45 countries were part of this event.

Due to members’ requests, the team organized a third and last online event. It took place from November 15 to 18, 2021. A total of 510 online one-to-one meetings were held between 81 companies from 55 countries.

After two years of meeting online, in April 2022, the WWCA team finally managed to host their second face-to-face event. It was organized from April 27 to 30 in Porto, Portugal. It was a hybrid event in which 40 companies in 29 countries lived the experience, 30 companies face-to-face and 10, due to travel restrictions imposed by their countries, lived the event online. In total, 343 meetings were held.

The benefits for the members are the following:

  • Business opportunities.The main goal of the WWCA is to promote cooperation among members, and this cooperation is expected to translate into business opportunities. The WWCA is fully committed to helping all members to build relationships between them.
  • Specialization in the transport of wine and other spirits.The World Wine Cargo Alliance is formed by freight forwarders that are specialized or are looking to specialized in the transport of wine or other spirits.
  • Partners all around the world.The WWCA offers its members top-quality partners from different countries. No matter where you need to send a shipment, you will find the right agent you can rely on. In the case there is not a member from a specific country, the WWCA team will provide information on reliable agents outside the network.
  • Financial Protection Program. The World Wine Cargo Alliance has a Payment Protection Program (or Trust Fund) that offers its members the possibility of being covered up to EUR 5,000 in the event of being affected by a non-payment by another member of the Alliance. From 2023 the PPP coverage will be triplicated, and members will be covered up to EUR 15,000
  • Annual Conference. The WWCA will hold an annual conference in different countries that are wine importers/exporters. Among other activities, all members can participate in the one-to-one meetings. This is where they can meet forwarders from all around the world in one room, and build their business relationships.
  • Members will receive a weekly newsletter with the latest news and updates, where in addition they will be able to participate with news about their company in the section “WWCA AGENTS NEWS”.
  • The WWCA online platform. Members of the alliance will have access to a personalized online platform where you can find all information about other members.
  • Customized advice on the legal requirements in Spain to transport wine to your country.
  • Possibility of replicating Cargo Wine.Members of the alliance might have the possibility of replicating Cargo Wine in their respective countries. More information is still to come.

The membership fee for 2022 is 300€ + 500€ (with coverage up to EUR 5000 by our Payment Protection Program).

The membership fee for next year 2023 will be 900€ (with coverage up to EUR 15000 by our Payment Protection Program).

Montserrat Nomen Brotons
WWCA President