Italy in the US grew + 11.3% in value in the FQ of 2018, but France soared

The US is doing well, Italy is still in the lead at a good pace, but other countries, like France, are running faster. This is the snapshot of wine imports in the United States for the first quarter of 2018 taken by the Italian Wine & Food Institute based on the data from the US Department of Commerce. Overall, the United States imported 3.1 million hectoliters (4.3% less than 2017), for 1.5 billion US dollars (+ 11.3%). Italy has done better than average, and has a substantial stability in the quantities shipped to the US (+ 0.7%, for 838.270 hectoliters), as well as a discrete increase in value (+ 11.7%, for 428.9 million US dollars). As far as its competitors go, however, France stands out as it more than doubled Italy in growth: + 14.2% in volume (476.980 hectoliters) and + 26% in value (347.5 million euros), the highest growth ever . Italian sparkling wines did very well at +16.5% in volume (247.330 hectoliters) and + 31.3% in value (140.8 million US dollars). In general, these are comforting numbers on a key market for Italian wine, which alone is worth a quarter of our exports. In 2017, 1.86 billion dollars, according to ICE, which has chosen the States to be its first target for the institutional campaign “Italian Wine - Taste the Passion”, under way, for an investment of 8 million euros.