Brexit and no taxes, so Italian wine is smiling. Great Britain is its third market

The agreement on Great Britain’s exit from the European Union has been finalized after four years of negotiations. Luckily, at the very last minute or almost, one of the most valuable sectors of Italian exports, wine, has been protected from unpleasant surprises. Those who have had to deal with the collapse of consumption outside the home, in Italy as well as around the world, caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, would have hardly been able to withstand the impact of a no deal. It would have meant substantial duties and a consequent increase in prices. Instead, there will be no duties, and no quotas on European products exported to the United Kingdom, the third most important market for Italian wine, which absorbs 8% share of shipments.
In 2019, according to the Italian statistics institute, ISTAT data that WineNews has analyzed, wine exports to Great Britain reached 770 million euros, which was a negative trend compared to 2018. And, in the first 9 months of this year, 2020, the decrease was -9.2%. This means that between January and September 2019 wine shipped to the UK totaled 541 million euros, while over the same period in 2020, the total was 491 million euros. Sparkling wines, essentially Prosecco, are the main item, which reached 373 million euros in value in 2019. The drop in shipments of bubbles is much higher: -20.6%. In the first 9 months of 2020, exports totaled 200 million euros, compared to 252 million euros over the same period in 2019. It has not been a good period at all, and actually could not have really been otherwise. This is why the certainty of being able to restart, without any further aggravation, even in Great Britain, becomes, indeed, very good news.
Italian producers have welcomed the news and are very satisfied about it. The wine producer, Gianluca Bisol told WineNews that he sold his first bottles of Prosecco Superiore in England in 1989, “when almost no one in England drank Italian bubbles. The agreement reached between Jonhson and Von der Leyen is absolutely fundamental for us, the producers of Prosecco Superiore, because in just 30 years’ time, England has become the principal cross-border market for our product. I do not want to even imagine what an impact a no deal would have had on such an important issue as free trade between Europe and England. It would certainly have significantly reduced the achievements made on that market over the past 30 years. I remember when I sold the first bottle of Prosecco Superiore at Ristorante Cecconi's in Piccadilly Circus, considered the best Italian restaurant in London. I was greatly satisfied because, until then, only Champagne had reigned supreme on that market, and everyone told me that it would be impossible to sell Prosecco in London. Today, for each bottle of Champagne sold in the UK, 7 bottles of Prosecco are sold”, said Gianluca Bisol.