Export of Italian wine at 3 billion euros in May 2026: -6.8% on 2025 (as in April)

After months of a noticeable recovery, albeit within an overall negative context, the trend in Italian wine exports appears to have "stabilized", at least in value terms, in May 2026. However, key markets, from the United States to Germany and the United Kingdom, posted weaker performances compared to the previous month, April. This is according to data released today by Istat and analyzed by WineNews. From January to May 2026, Italian wine exports worldwide came close to 3 billion euros (2.98 billion euros), -6.86% compared with the same period in 2025, a percentage decline that is essentially unchanged from the trend recorded in April 2026. In terms of export volumes, the result was 809.1 million liters, representing a -5% decline compared to the first 5 months of 2025. This figure also worsened from the -3.7% reported in April 2026.
The United States, the leading market for Italian wine exports, imported 709 million euros worth of Italian wine. The comparison with 2025 remains strongly negative (-15.4%) and in line with the trend observed in the first four months of 2026. Volumes, however, declined significantly compared to the previous report, falling to -6% compared to 2025, for a total of 141.5 million liters. Germany remains the leading European market and the world second-largest destination for Italian wine, with exports reaching 439.1 million euros (-8.2% compared to 2025) and volumes at -9.3% (180 million liters). The United Kingdom also recorded a decline, with exports totaling 278.5 million euros (-6.5%) and volumes -6.6% (88.5 million liters) when comparing the first five months of 2025 with the same period in 2026.
The first positive news in terms of export performance comes from Canada, where exports reached 159.5 million euros, stable compared to the same period in 2025. This is followed by Switzerland at 143.8 million euros, which remained at -12.7%, as it did in April 2026, and France at 127.1 million euros, which slipped into negative territory (-2.9%). In the first 5 months of 2026, the Netherlands market for Italian wine was worth 97.9 million euros, down 6.6% compared to the same period in 2025, while Belgium recorded a double-digit decline to 79.2 million euros (-12.6%). Sweden is close behind at 78.4 million euros (-2.4%), as Russia, whose market posted a significant surge compared to 2025, reaching 71.9 million euros (+17.4%). However, as already observed in April 2026, the pace of purchases appears to be slowing.
As for Asian markets, Japan improved compared to April 2026, and the comparison with 2025 shows near stability (-0.2%), with exports totaling 99.7 million euros. Meanwhile, China delivered an excellent performance in percentage terms. Although starting from lower values, exports reached 34.1 million euros, +18% compared to 2025. Among the positive surprises, there is also Brazil, one of the most promising emerging markets, at 16.9 million euros (+15.2%). By contrast, there was bad news from Australia, where exports totaled 23.4 million euros (-16.9%).
After a negative January, affected in part by the rush to purchase at the beginning of 2025 in anticipation of tariffs that eventually came into effect, and despite the partial recovery seen in subsequent months, overall exports have continued to remain in negative territory. As a result, Italian wine exports in May 2026 failed to generate the hoped-for surge, remaining essentially stable in economic terms compared to the previous month. As the sector attention increasingly more turns to the upcoming harvest, which will have to contend with very high winery stocks, 2026 is thus confirming itself, so far, as a difficult year for the Italian wine industry.