Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor: April 2021 sees a new start for exports to the USA

Positive standing on international markets is announced for the 186 wine companies selected for “OperaWine”, starting tomorrow in Verona, together with 300 operators and buyers from 13 countries: the event, organized by Vinitaly with “Wine Spectator”, the US magazine of reference for the global wine business, is the start of a long and gradual restart for Vinitaly in Italy and the world. And, with the fairs, the demand is restarting, in 2020 in decline even in the main market, the USA, and in the emerging giant, China.
According to the analysis of the Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor on a customs basis, statistics in recent months are highlighting a strong revival of Italian and French wine orders in the two key countries of the market: in April 2021, wine imports in the United States grew by an average of 20% in value, with Italy (+26%) and France (+51%) registering growth well above average. April, but not only, was also very positive for Chinese demand, which in the month recorded an authentic boom in terms of value of orders from Italy (+98%) which today - after the exit of the Australians - has become the third supplier country in the Dragon.
Analyzing the customs results of the first four months, in China the Australian collapse (-80% in value compared to the same period in 2020) led to double-digit growth for all competitors, with Italian imports up 22%. Less than France (+41%), protagonist of an authentic boom in Champagne (+110%). Proof that even a “red” demand such as China is opening up to sparkling wines in the post-emergency period is the growth in bubbles: +75% in the first four months, compared to -15% for still wines. As far as Italian wines are concerned, the Observatory points out that premium wines are clearly growing, with still wines (85% of imports from Italy) growing by 19% in value and just 2% in volume, thus showing a significant increase in the average price.
At the same time, according to customs processing, Italian wines in the United States are still reported to be losing in the four-month period (-12%) due to a black January-February (-26%) while France reduces the gap in value to -3% after the annus horribilis marked by the health emergency and the axe of additional duties. The result is a head to head on the first market in the world, with Italy at 538 million euros of sales followed closely by France (534 million euros). A tandem, the French-Italian one, which extends over the other competitors (in greater difficulty) and which, at this stage, represents 2/3 of total imports in value terms.
“With Wine to Asia in August, the Vinitaly China Roadshow in September and the Vinitaly special edition in October”, commented Veronafiere CEO Giovanni Mantovani on the eve of “Operawine”, “we are implementing unprecedented buyer recruitment and communication campaign by Ice-Veronafiere. The aim is to take advantage of a situation that may prove to be very favorable for Made in Italy in the Dragon: Beijing’s super-duties against Australia, with the consequent cancellation of the main supplier, have left fundamental quotas on the market that will redesign the presence of world wine players in China. The challenge is to intercept as much as possible this market chasm, together with the phenomenon of post-Covid revenge spending in China”.
For the head of Nomisma Wine Monitor, Denis Pantini, “the reopening of restaurants in the USA leads to moderate optimism about the recovery of wine imports, as also witnessed by the data for April, which also show a “rotation” of purchases where European wines are the main beneficiaries, with France in the lead (+ 51% compared to April 2020), while wines from the New World show double-digit drops. A recovery on which will be further influenced by the recent news of the agreement between USA and EU for a five-year suspension of duties and other retaliatory tariffs between the two sides of the Atlantic, even if this agreement will mainly benefit the other European wines, as the Italian one had already been exempted from additional duties related to the Airbus-Boeing dispute”.