THIRD COUNTRIES OBSERVATORY NOMISMA: ITALY IS ONLY THE FOURTH EXPORTER ON FUTURE WINE MARKETS, FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA TO AFRICA, WITH 11% SHARE (466 MILLION EUROS), WHILE FRANCE (33%), AUSTRALIA (15%) AND CHILE (12%) ARE DOING BETTER

Italy only got the wood wine medal in the most interesting emergent import markets from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, former USSR, Latin America to Africa, analyzed by the Third Countries Observatory Business Strategies (www.bsnstrategies.com) and Nomisma Wine Monitor (www.winemonitor.it), and presented at Vinitaly. The countries are China, Ivory Coast, South Korea, Mozambique, the Philippines, Nigeria, Malaysia, Brazil, Thailand, Mexico, Taiwan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Belarus, UAE, Kazakhstan, Israel, Russia and Angola. In 2016 they bought wine for 4.25 billion euros, for a 298% increase in demand compared to 2006 figures.
Italy exported 466 million euros last year to these countries, and took fourth position among the top exporters with 11% market share (in the global wine scenario Italy is second at 21%).
France is on a higher level at 33% shares and 1.4 billion euros, tripling Italy, followed by Australia (15%, 620 million) and Chile (12%, 501 million). And, the ranking does not get better when we look at growth performance. The Italian +373% recorded in the last ten years does not keep up with the surge from New Zealand (+ 921%) and Australia (+ 881%), or with South Africa (+ 516%), France (+ 434%) and Chile (+ 379%).

“To keep up with the new wine market geography,” said Business Strategy Officer Silvana Ballotta, “Italy needs to strengthen its commitment to internationalization, with a synergetic approach involving trade and active targeted partnerships, as well as involving institutions for the development of bilateral agreements through the EU. In these markets, where Italian wine is still little known, promotional actions are indispensable and need to aim at an umbrella brand capable of promoting all the key elements of Made in Italy”.

“Besides French leadership, which spans the globe”, added Denis Pantini, Nomisma Wine Monitor manager, “emerging wine markets in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia and Chile in the first place) are growing more than Italian ones. Some of the factors that make them more competitive are larger sized exporting companies (fundamental to target market distributors), famous vines (international) and easier entry due to free trade agreements, which in the case of Chile allows zero-duty imports to many of these countries”.

According to data the Observatory analyzed, Italy is leader on the Russian (29%) and Ukrainian (29%) markets, while French wine dominates in the Middle East (Israel and the United Arab Emirates), Nigeria, and above all in 4 of the 7 emerging Asian countries (China, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand), where China alone accounts for 50% of the total wine demand in 19 countries (+ 1856% in the last 10 years). Regarding demand, 14 out of 19 countries have shown triple digit growth, like Thailand (+ 244%), Malaysia (+ 234%), United Arab Emirates (+ 219%), Taiwan (164%), Russia (+ 110%), Brazil (+ 130%) and Mexico 113%).