(TheDrinksBusiness) - PLB buying director Paul Meihuizen has warned that 2013 is set to be “one of the most challenging for the global wine industry”. Pointing to “challenging” harvests this year in much of Europe, where some regions saw up to a 40% volume decline, Meihuizen noted the subsequent step up in demand for wine from less affected countries such as Chile and South Africa as he confirmed “a lot of uncertainty around pricing and availability.” Meihuizen coupled this situation with longer term efforts across the global wine trade to tackle what has until now been a problem of wine oversupply, raising concern that future demand “will put more pressure on the UK sector where returns for wineries have always been less attractive.”