Italian wine: 2024 record-breaking in exports, at 8.1 billion euros (+5.5% over 2023)

Aggregate data must always be interpreted, especially when referring to a world as articulated and complex as Italian wine, made up of thousands of realities that differ in size, success and territory of action. But, in the meantime, in a difficult context where the most touted words are declining consumption, duties, healthism or inflation, Italian wine, as expected, greets a 2024 with an all-time record of exports in value, at 8.1 billion euros and a growth of +5.5% compared to 2023, confirming the trend recorded until November, according to Istat data updated today. This economic growth is accompanied by an increase in volumes as well, on 2.18 billion liters in 2024 (+3.2% over 2023), but to be read in light of the growth of sparkling wines, which have “stolen” market share from still wines, as sparkling wines recorded exports of 555.5 million liters out of 495.7 in 2023 (+12%), for a value of 2.3 billion euros (+5%), with sparkling wines now accounting for 28.4% in value and 26.4% in volume of all Italian wine exports.
Among the various countries, the U.S. confirms itself, by far, as the first foreign partner of Italian wineries: while waiting to see if and when the dreaded duties promised by Trump will arrive, the U.S. imported 1.9 billion euros worth of Italian wine, up 10.2%, mainly thanks to a year-end that, for many, should also be read in light of a small “stockpile race” precisely to absorb the effect of possible duties on European products. Also growing in value is Germany, which sets the bar at 1.18 billion euros (+3.71%), virtually stable is the United Kingdom, at 851 million euros (+1%), while growing to 447.8 million euros is Canada (+15.3%), and giving up something to Switzerland, at 411.1 million euros (-1.96%), and France, at 304.6 million euros (-0.88%). Among the other partners, the Netherlands, at 257.1 million euros (+10.1%), grows, as does Russia, at 230.6 million euros, a jump of +45.6%, while Belgium loses a little, stopping at 227.5 million euros (-1.6%). Among the most important markets, Sweden grows, at 189.6 million euros (+3%), while Japan holds its own, at 184.2 million euros (+0.5%), and, still in Europe, Austria, at 163.5 million euros (+14.3%), and Denmark, at 150.8 million euros (+4.94%), close on a positive note. Dropping well below “quota 100”, on the other hand, is Norway, at 92.2 million euros (-10.9%), while, in Asia, China stops at 89.5 million euros, a drop of -10.2% on 2023, South Korea is stable, at 50.6 million euros, and also loses the “free port” of Hong Kong, which retreats to 22.3 million euros of Italian wine imports in 2024 (-11.5%).
All this in a scenario that, on the whole, therefore, appears positive, at least when looking at Italian wine going to the world, but which must not let down the guard of an industry that is facing epochal challenges: from climate change to the structural decrease in consumption, between healthism and changing “demographics” of wine consumers, from the push for increasingly stringent policies on promotion and consumption of alcohol, in so many important areas of the world, from Europe itself to America, to trade wars that are returning to create great uncertainty in the world’s markets.