WINENEWS ANALYSIS - ITALIAN WINE EXPORTS ON THE RISE (+9.2%) ... BUT ITALIAN CONSUMERS DISCOVER NEW WORLD WINES

Italian wine exports continue to increase all over the world. According to Istat (National Statistics Institute) data, the number of “Made in Italy” bottles sold abroad increased by 9.2% in 2005. But another important and novel change is worth noting. Italian consumer preferences are changing, and an ever growing interest in wines produced in non-European countries has been registered. In particular, wines from the U.S., Chile, Argentina, and Australia, or, the New World wines, have become of particular interest for consumers here. On the other hand, wine imports from European countries have lost popularity and a decrease in imports of 25% has been registered.
According to the ISTAT data that has been analyzed by WineNews, importation by countries outside of Europe has increased by 269%, growing from 134,000 hectoliters in 2004, to 493,000 in 2005. The encouraging news on Italian wine exports is the increase in exports to the European market (+11.5%), the United States (+5.1%), and, above all, to countries like China (+117%), Russia (+86.7%), and India (+64%). And this data should instigate producers to reflect on the importance of these so called emerging nations, who, though they currently represent a very limited percentage of wine exports, are claiming an ever stronger role as protagonists, assuming the characteristics of a user group with vast potential that could, even in the very near future, surpass Italy’s current markets of reference. Three quarters of Italian wine production is, in fact, destined for the European market (72.2%, with an increase equal to 3.4%), while almost 15% of Italian bottles end up in the U.S., where “Made in Italy” wines conquered the market in 2005, beating out Australia and France (with an increase of 2.6%). Overall, this data is comforting news for the wine market and persuasive in convincing Italian winemaking companies to bet on continued increases in earnings, and, above all, in further increases in export numbers for 2006.
In a recent survey by WineNews, in collaboration with Vinitaly, this positive opinion was verified by 50 of the most important producers in the country. And this sector’s rebound, after 4 years of “tears and blood”, begins with these producers. But its future is still uncertain, and though signals of new growth are encouraging, it cannot be said that the wine market has completely come out of an incredibly difficult crisis period that it had never before experienced.