COLDIRETTI: EU - US AGREEMENT SHOULD CONFIRM “MADE IN ITALY’S” LEADERSHIP

2005 was a record year for Italian wine exports and it was recently topped off by an important trade agreement with the U.S.. But Italy’s national agricultural organization Coldiretti warns that there are some possible risks. Comments made by the organization after the bilateral agreement between the United States and Europe was signed recently in London, noted some possible drawbacks. “The important agreement with the United States, where Italy is the export leader, must not turn into a free for all for indiscriminate and controversial wine practices in exchange for concessions in the safeguarding of territorial products from imitations, which should instead be receiving more complete protection from the WTO”.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and Ice (National Institute for Foreign Commerce), 2005 was a landmark year for “Made in Italy” products in the U.S., during which the total value of wine and vermouth exports surpassed the billion dollar mark for the first time ever, thanks to an 11.4% boom in exports. But, according to Coldiretti, these positive results, along with the creation of a structured relations system to discuss wine issues, and the U.S.’s efforts to safeguard Chianti and Marsala, may be counterbalanced by the risk of accepting winemaking practices that are currently banned in Europe. The group also points out that the safeguarding of only two Italian products does nothing to protect against the falsification of other products. Coldiretti estimates that Italian exports to the U.S. would likely double if imitation wines in the U.S. were completely banned. Today, “fake” Italian wines abound, and it is not hard to find a Refosco, Barbera, Rosé, Barolo or Super Piedmont, or even Moscato and Malvasia with the "Doc" seal, though produced in California’s Napa Valley and Sonoma County.

Italy exports more wine than any other product to the U.S., with total earnings in 2005 reaching 1.080 billion dollars for over 222.2 million liters of wines and vermouth (a +8.9% increase in respect to 2004). This quantity, points out Coldiretti, represents a market quota of 31% of the foreign wines in the U.S., making Italy the number one competitor, followed by Australia (with 28%), and France (14%).
Coldiretti also noted that this is an extraordinary result to have reached twenty years after the methanol scandal almost destroyed the Italian wine market. It is testimony to the successful path Italy has taken and that has now resulted in the country’s first place position as world wine exporters, with total earnings reaching 2.8 billion euros (up by 260% since 1986). These results are largely due to the doubling of certified quality wines with the Doc, Docg, and Igt labels, which in 1986 were only 228 and today they number 460.