Record for wine & “made in italy”: one billion dollars surpassed for u.s. exports (+11.4% in 2005)

“Made in Italy” in the U.S. has set a record with wine and vermouth export sales, which surpassed, for the first time in history, the billion dollar mark for 2005 sales (a boom of +11.4%).

This record was announced by national agricultural association Coldiretti, based on Ice documents from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for 2005. This makes the 222.2 million liters of wines and vermouth (+8.9% compared to 2004) the most exported Italian agricultural product to the U.S., which during 2005 earned a total of 1.080 billion dollars. And this quantity represents a market quota of 31 percent for foreign wines imported in the U.S., placing Italy in the lead and ahead of competitors like Australia (28%) and France (14%). The majority of “Made in Italy” exports are table wines that make up 197.91 million liters (+9.7%) of exports worth 978.09 million dollars (+11,7 per cento), followed by sparkling wines with 13.6 million liters (+7.5%) and a value of 74.95 million dollars (+10.3%).

France definitely holds first place for sparkling wine exports to the U.S. claiming almost half of total bottles (45.2% of total).

These are extraordinary results for Italy to have reached just 20 years after a methanol scandal almost destroyed the Italian wine industry, and is testimony that the right path was chosen to return Italy to first place for wine exports worldwide, now reaching a total value of 2.8 billion euros (+250% since 1986). These results are also thanks to the doubled numbers of certified Doc, Docg, and Igt wines, which counted 460 registered wines in 2005 compared to 228 in 1986. Results, however, would even further improve if international commercial negotiators and the Wto offered real help in battling “wine-forgery” and “Made in Italy” imitations.

It is estimated that in the U.S. the imitation “Made in Italy” wine market is in fact almost equal to that which Italy exports. In other words, one out of two bottles of wine are “fakes” and it is easy to come across curious bottles of Chianti, Sangiovese, Refosco, and Barbera, even Rosé, Barolo and Super Piemontese that are produced in California. There are even “doc” California Moscato and Malvasia from the Napa Valley and Sonoma County.