WORLD WINE TRADE IS STILL GROWING. UNIONE ITALIANA VINI SAYS IT WILL REACH 35 BILLION DOLLARS (+5% ON 2012) IN 2013, ESPECIALLY THANKS TO BULK AND SPARKLING WINES, +10% AND +5% RESPECITVELY

The world wine trade will close the year in positive: according to Unione Italiana Vino (Italian Wine Union) estimates, elaborated on the progress of the first six months of the major importing and exporting countries, the total in 2013 will amount to 35 billion dollars, equivalent to a 5% increase compared to 2012. All three main market segments are expected to grow: the highest rate (+10%) is still bulk wine, thanks to the dizzying increase of prices of the 2012 harvest products, which will be diluted only partially by the 2013 harvest that is expected to be normal more or less all over the world. Growth also for packaged wines, at 24.9 billion dollars (+5%), and for sparkling wines, whose final balance should hover around +3 to +4%, at 5.8 billion.
"I am quite satisfied with this situation”, says Domenico Zonin, President of the Italian Wine Union, “as it is poised to be positive for our industry, in spite of the difficult economic situation. It seems that the sector has drawn the largest possible benefit from the reduction of supply over the last few years, generated in part by the effect of premium grubbing in Europe and in part by the bad weather in the last two years, making lack of product one of the strongest allies to buffer the effects of the global crisis. It will be interesting to see how the market will adjust now when the signs of recession are beginning to be less heavy and harvests are going back to being regular. This year”, continues Zonin, “with the first tentative signs of economic recovery in Europe and a bountiful harvest a bit all over the world, could give us an exciting preview of the new scenario”.
In the long term, pre and during the crisis, the sparkling wine sector is the only one that has had more difficulty putting their accounts in order: it had to wait five years to return to 2008 levels, while since 2010 bulk and packaged wine have recovered their lowest peak year. The responsible party has a name and surname: Champagne, whose gradual but too slow recovery continues to affect the overall progress of the category and has neutralized the momentum of the Prosecco effect. "I prefer looking at the sparkling wine situation the other way around”, continues Zonin, “and give credit to Prosecco for offsetting French sparkling wine’s pause for reflection”. Regarding bulk and packaged wine, the scarcity of the product in 2010 and 2012 clearly reads as a direct effect of the sudden climb in trade values: packaged wines, between 2010 and 2013, will earn about 5 billion US dollars (20 to 25), bulk wines will be positive at 1.2 billion (4.6 to 5.8).

Thanks to dynamic Prosecco, as I said, our country will earn more shares on the world market. If Italy were to maintain its pace of growth in the first half of this year, it would close the year at 900 million US dollars in exports (+15%), with 2 percentage points more in shares of the global trade, reaching 16%, compared to France that closing its annual growth at +2% would see its weight reduced by another percentage point, down to 55%.
In packaged wines, Italy is expected to close in positive (up 6% to 4.7 billion dollars), maintaining second place globally, with a share of 19%, gaining tenths of a point on the French, whose performance in the first half of the year has not been particularly brilliant. The New World wave seems to be calming down, as only South Africa surprised us with a net recovery of trade in bottled wines (+27%), which should bring it back above 2% of the world share. Chile, Argentina and Australia are at a standstill; there is a slight increase in Spain, while the U.S. confirm a healthy status in exports in recent years, with a world trade share approaching 5%.

Focus - Coldiretti: "Italy towards a record 5 billion euros exported in 2013"
The 2013 vintage will be toasting to the 10% increase in value of Made in Italy wine exports, which is soaring to the historical record of 5 billion euros, if the current growth trend is maintained until the end of the year, says the Italian farmers association Coldiretti, based on the Italian institute of statistics, Istat data on foreign trade in the first quarter of 2013. "Italian sparkling wine has reached the best result outside national borders”, underlined Coldiretti, “and demand grew as much as 19% in 2013. More than half of foreign sales are in the European Union where wine exports grew by 10%, the same as in the United States. Germany is confirmed the top market for Italian wines, marking 13% growth, but export is booming in France (+12%) and Great Britain (+8%), too. The real boom, though, is in Russia, where purchases of Italian wines grew 32%. Record growth also (+30%) in Australia. This is a significant growth when you consider that Australia is now the number one exporter of wine among countries outside Europe and fourth in the world after France, Italy and Spain. The trend is positive also on the Asian markets, with an overall growth of 3%; a 5% increase in China. In the United States”, continued Coldiretti, “Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Pinot Grigio, Barolo and Prosecco are particularly appreciated. In Germany Prosecco, Amarone della Valpolicella and Collio are well liked while in Russia Chianti, Barolo, Asti, Moscato d'Asti and Prosecco and in England, Prosecco, Chianti and Barolo. The excellent results on foreign markets, where more than half the turnover of Italian wine is produced, is accompanied by an increase in the value of sales on the national level. In the first quarter of 2013 there was an 8.4% increase of household purchases according to the Italian institute of services for agro-food markets, Ismea. This result”, continued Coldiretti, “is determined by increases in average prices as the national consumption amount fell to a record low since the Unification of Italy, to just 22.6 million hectoliters in 2012 that is even lower than the 29 million hectoliters drunk in the United States (+2%) and the 30.3 million hectoliters in France, which securely holds the world record”.