ICE: not only wine, all the Italian food records in the USA

Wine is the champion of Italian exports to the United States, thanks to shipments amounting to over 1 billion dollars out of the 2.5 total of all Italian agri-food, which in the first 6 months of 2018 registered + 13.8% overall growth. Italy is also a market leader of many other products that end up on the tables of Americans, from olive oil to cheese, pasta and mineral water. This data is from the US Department of Commerce and consequently assessed by the Italian trade institute ICE, which shows Italy holding the record in various strategic sectors, and Italy is the sixth US supplier in agri-food, as well. Wine is the most important item in the market basket, weighing for 39.7% of the total, while the remaining 60% is made up of primarily olive oil (20%), pasta (12%), cheeses (11%), sauces and other prepared foods (9%), canned vegetables and baked goods (7%), and mineral waters (6%). Moreover, as ICE has explained to WineNews, Italy has definitely maintained its record in olive oil imports, despite the 8.2% less in volume in 2017, because in the first half of 2018 Italy exported olive oil for 275 million US dollars, which is a 4% increase in value, for a dominant market share of 37.5% in value and 33.6% extra virgin olive oil in the USA. Italy stands out in the cheese sector as well, thanks to a +19.6% jump in value for 154 million dollars, and a market share of 25.5% in value, twice that of France, which takes second place. Further, Italy’s numbers are double those of Canada in pasta and register +18.1% for 162.8 million euros and a market share of 35.5%. The Italian record is solid even for mineral waters, at 95 million euros in value, + 21.3%, and a market share of 34.5%. Additionally, Italy is growing by double-digits also in sauces (125 million US dollars, + 26.9%) vegetable preserves (97.5 million US dollars, + 13.1%), baked goods (80 million US dollars + 28.7%) and coffee (50.8 million euros, + 5.1%). Italy’s growth has been continuous thanks to the ICE support campaign backed by the Ministry of Economic Development project, in place since 2015, which focuses on direct communication to consumers to also fight counterfeiting and “Italian Sounding”.