Among cuisine and wine, promotion is at the center to relaunch export of made in Italy wine & food

While all of Italy waits with anticipation and confidence for December 10 when Unesco will decide whether to declare Italian cuisine an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the edition No. 10 of “Settimana della Cucina Italiana nel Mondo” - the “Week of Italian Cuisine in the World” is currently being celebrated, under the direction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and, which, with over 11,000 initiatives in more than 100 countries, it “represents an effective tool to promote our soft power worldwide and a fundamental pillar of growth diplomacy, a strategy that I have pursued with determination since the beginning of my mandate to support our businesses globally in every sector, starting with the crucial agri-food industry”, said Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani underlining that “food and cuisine are also for us tools of peace and economic solidarity, through which our country and our companies can offer tangible support to nations most exposed to the risk of food crises and contribute to improving the living conditions of their local communities”, as he explained in recent days during a conference at Palazzo Madama in Rome.
The conference highlighted that the 2025 edition of the “Week” focuses on the theme “La cucina italiana tra cultura, salute e innovazione” - “Italian cuisine between culture, health, and innovation” with the threefold objective of supporting the Unesco candidacy, promoting Italian cuisine as a healthy, balanced, and sustainable dietary model, and “emphasizing the aspects of innovation and research that characterize our food supply chain, from production to processing, packaging, distribution, consumption, reuse, and recycling”, but also to reaffirm the social and humanitarian value of initiatives such as “Food for Gaza” aimed at providing aid to the Palestinian civilian population, and “Italy for Sudan” through which humanitarian assistance will soon be sent to the African country. Marzia Varvaglione represented the voice of Italian wine, vicepresident of the Italian Wine Union - Uiv and head of the Ceev (Comitato europeo delle imprese del vino - European Committee of Wine Companies), who focused on the critical issue of U.S. Tariffs, but not only. “We hope that on tariffs we can play a “second half” with an exemption for the wine and spirits sector. But while waiting for diplomacy to take its course, the Government has rightly included in the Budget Bill an additional 100 million euros per year for the 2026-2028 period for activities aimed at promotion and internationalization (as announced by Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida). We trust that a significant portion of these resources will be allocated to our sector which is at high risk of downsizing due to tariffs, the decline of the dollar, and reduced purchasing power”, commented Varvaglione.
“The wine market situation toward non-EU countries, and particularly the United States - she added - is very critical: in just a few months we went from an overseas export growth of +12.5% in the first quarter—, trongly influenced by pre-tariff frontloading, to -4% in the first nine months with a -23% drop in the last quarter alone. Uiv is convinced that in this phase of severe uncertainty, it is necessary to increase resources for foreign promotion and, at the same time, activate more effective projects shared with wine companies. A shock therapy supported by the Government”.
According to the Uiv Observatory, the average price drop for wines leaving Italian wineries and headed overseas in the July-September quarter was 15.5%. A self-imposed price cut aimed at maintaining market share, which, however, our companies can’t sustain beyond the short term. For this reason, U notes iv, “it is necessary to further increase the budget allocated to internationalization and to promotional projects implemented through the Ice Agency. Extraordinary projects that must be developed through a public-private partnership with synergistic work between companies and public agencies to best calibrate the most suitable tools, the most effective communication, and the priority market segments”.