At the halfway point in 2022, Italian wine exports around the world at 3.78 billion euros (+13.5%)

At the halfway point in 2022, it seems that Italian wine exports are still not affected by the effects of inflation. As a matter of fact, considering the period, the Italian statistics institute ISTAT’s data (which WineNews evaluated), did not register any slowdown in consumption. The result, instead, is + 13.5% growth compared to the same period in 2021, slightly lower than the previous survey, totaling 3.78 billion euros shipped around the world. The US dollar is strong and supports US imports, which are soaring towards one billion euros. Great Britain is continuing to give excellent results, where in the meantime, the introduction of the European Union’s new label on wine & food products has been postponed to January 2024. The trend is positive, in general, in European Countries’ markets, which are fully aware, though, that the worst will come in the next few months, when costs of raw materials and energy will inevitably begin to be passed on to consumers. On the other hand, the widely anticipated collapse of Russia is continuing, and since the invasion of Ukraine in February has seen all trade relations with European Union countries rapidly decline. China is also struggling, as almost all sectors of the economy are experiencing difficulties associated to Beijing’s management of the Pandemic emergency, which does not anticipate any step backwards from the zero contagion strategy.
Looking in detail at the individual countries, France marked an excellent + 40% of its wine imports from Italy, to 140 million euros, following the 2021 harvest, one of the most disastrous ever. Switzerland, an important market above all for fine wines, marked a more contained growth, + 5%, to 208 million euros. Austria did even better, growing + 22.6%, for a total of 62.8 million euros of Italian wine imported in the first half of 2022. The main partner within the European Union (and the second market overall), is still Germany, which registered limited growth (+ 5.7%) reaching 570 million euros. Not far away, then, the positive trend of the Netherlands continued, growing + 9% in imports of Italian wine in the first six months of 2022, to 114.4 million euros. Belgium, the reference hub for many secondary markets, especially Eastern Europe, has also done very well and grew + 26.7% to reach 111.5 million euros.
Going north in the Old World, we come to the consolidated Northern European markets, which have responded better than any others to the two-year pandemic, mainly due to a less rigid management of the Covid-19 emergency, as well as substantial growth in domestic consumption. In the first six months of 2022, Denmark grew + 13.2%, perfectly in line with the average registered for Italian wine exports, to 84.1 million euros. Sweden, instead, registered + 7.9% growth, to 108.4 million euros, similar to that of Norway (+ 7.3%), which imported 57.2 million euros of Italian wine. The real surprise, however, which confirms what has been happening over the last few months, is Great Britain. In the first half of 2022, Great Britain imported 368.8 million euros of wine from Italy, 23.18% more compared to the same period in 2021.
At the geographical and political borders of Europe, exports to Russia lost 29.7%, stopping at 40.8 million euros of Italian wine imported in the first half of the year. The performance of the two North American giants, the USA and Canada, was definitely quite different. In the United States, wine exports are still registering sustained growth (+ 12.1%), and at the halfway point of 2022 are just under one billion: 963 million euros. Their Canadian neighbors have done even better, as purchases have grown + 16.2% compared to the same period in 2021, to 208 million euros. Finally, as always, the WineNews evaluation of ISTAT data relating to Italian wine exports in the first half of 2022, concludes with the Asian markets. Except for Japan, where shipments went very well, marking + 24.8% growth, for a value of 97 million euros, the Asian markets, marked a general decline, probably linked to the difficulties in China. In Beijing, Italian wine imports fell 14.3%, to 56.3 million euros, while South Korea lost 8.8%, dropping to 42.4 million euros, which was an almost identical drop (-8.7%) for Hong Kong, to 13.5 million euros of wine imported from Italy in the first six months of 2022.