WINE EXPORTS: PREMIER RENZI SAID, “I FIND IT UNACCEPTABLE THAT THE FRENCH EXPORT 11 BILLION EUROS AND ITALY ONLY 5. COMMUNICATION IS KEY”. CONFAGRICOLTURA SAID, “THE PROBLEM IS UNIT VALUE, AND THE PASSWORD IS "PROMOTE", DO MORE AND BETTER”

“I find it unacceptable that French wine, a great wine on the same level as Italian, due to communication strategies, export 11 billion euros and we export only about 5. We have to focus on agriculture, so that a part of the economy can breathe again. We need to talk more about agriculture. We have cut a lot of taxes for farmers. The point is that communication strategy in this sector can also revive the entire country”.
This is what the Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said during his recent visit to Asti, one of the historical territories of Italian wine.
On the other hand, as Renzi has repeatedly stressed, wine is the driving force of Italian agri-food exports, for which the Prime Minister had set the goal of reaching 50 million euros in value by 2020, compared to 37 million euros today.

The Italian farmers confederation, Confagricoltura, commented on Renzi’s statement that the key word is "value", because “every liter of French wine crossing the border is on average 2.2 times higher than the Italian”, explained Mario Guidi, head of the organization. The numbers speak loud and clear. “In 2015 Italy was second in the ranking of wine exporting countries both in quantity, 20 million hectoliters, surpassed only by Spain at 24 million hectoliters, and in terms of value, 5.4 billion euros, surpassed by France, which actually”, said Confagricoltura, “exports "only" 8.2 billion euros and not 11”.

The total French volume in exports is far below Italy’s, as France exports "only" 14 million hectoliters of wine, almost 30% less than Italy. The point is, as we have said often and traders also know that the “unit value of Italian wine exports is much lower than the French: 2.7 euros per liter compared to 5.9 euros per liter”.

“The password is, therefore, promotion”, said Confagricoltura, “do more and better, as this process has been ongoing for years, and support our wines through appropriate marketing and promotion. Perhaps public measures and incentives need to be used in a better way, since unfortunately they have recently shown limitations on the managerial level”.