Italian wine is soaring in Japan (+18.4%). Now, a joint promotion strategy is essential

In 2022, Italian wine in Japan registered +18.4% growth in volume, which is exactly double the total imports of wine to the land of the Rising Sun (+9.2%). It was definitely an excellent performance that, however, needs to accelerate promotional programs to make it more efficient, as well as stay away from fragmentation and wasting resources. This was the joint intent manifested in Tokyo during the Global Road Show organized by Veronafiere-Vinitaly (which will close on February 23rd, in South Korea). The foreign trade agency, ICE, also collaborated with the main Italian institutional players in Japan; that is, the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan and also with the support of the Italy-Japan Foundation, the cultural and relational protection unit founded in 1999 by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the Italian wines union, Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) & Vinitaly Observatory, Italy’s performance on the sixth importing market in the world (in 2021 Tokyo overtook Beijing on the world ranking), was definitely positive in imports of still bottled wines — especially red wines — closing at 165 million euros (+25%), and at +26% for sparkling wines, (equivalent to 44 million euros in value). Total imports of Italian wine in Japan in 2022 closed at a total value of 278 million euros. This means that it is in second place among the supplier countries, behind France, which alone passed the threshold of 1 billion euros in orders from Japan.
“We are laying the foundations for a medium and long-term project to promote Italian wine in Japan, and Vinitaly has confirmed its role as a collective brand on a global scale”, Federico Bricolo, the president of Veronafiere, said. “This extraordinary campaign, that the new management of the Fair organization strongly pushed for, aims not only to strengthen incoming at Vinitaly 2023, to be held April 2nd to 5th, but also to create an effective unified promotional program in favor of Italian wine”.
Gianluigi Benedetti, Italian Ambassador in Japan, emphasized Vinitaly’s central role of enhancing and promoting Italian wine, reiterated, “right now, it is essential to create collaborations in the spirit of a Country system. At this stage of Vinitaly, the collaboration of the Embassy, the ICE Agency, the Chamber of Commerce, together with the Italian Trade Fair System, represented by Veronafiere, is a clear sign of the determination to do well and to work together in support of the Italian productive system”.
Constant supervision and systemic alliances are the watchwords also for Ice Agenzia, Vinitaly’s partner in the organization of the extraordinary roadshow staged over the past two months by Veronafiere in nine countries and on three continents: America, Europe and Asia. “We are always alongside Veronafiere and, especially, Vinitaly. Japanese professionals love”, Erica Di Giovancarlo, Director of the ICE Agency in Tokyo, said, “Italian wine. They love Italy and they love Verona. I believe that all ICE initiatives in the wine sector can be carried out in collaboration with Vinitaly. This would undoubtedly help to increase Italy's strength, because only by thinking as a system can you beat the competition”.
“Italy is the second largest wine exporter in the world. However, this leadership is not confirmed in Asia, where other countries are able to sell larger quantities, in spite of a generally lower variety and quality-price ratio than Italian wines”, Rosario Pedicini, president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan, commented, “and Italian producers are often too small to be able to approach complex markets like the Asian ones on their own. The Italian system, in which the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan plays an active part, works very closely with the producers to improve their positioning in Japan”.