Exports, the sharp slowdown of Italian wine: +0.4% in the first five months of 2023

Do not be alarmed, because the global consumption slowdown is obvious, and it is not surprising that Italian wine is suffering as a result. After all, the producers themselves, to WineNews, indicated inflation and slow consumption as the main concerns in their reflections on the global economic scenario and future prospects (here). The fears of our wineries are given shape by Istat data, which confirm a sharp slowdown in Italian wine exports in the first five months of 2023, with turnover nearly the same as in the same period in the previous year: 3.08 billion euros (+0.4%). And it’s not much better in terms of volume, coming in at 844 million litres (-1.6%). Few are saved in these first five months of 2023, when reassuring notes arrive from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, while the United States, for years the locomotive of Italian wine growth in the world, unexpectedly finds itself in negative territory, as do Canada and Japan.
Starting with the markets closest to Italy, the Istat data on foreign trade, relating to the period January-May 2023, as analyzed by WineNews, first of all, show yet another excellent performance by France, which imported 136 million euros of Italian wine in first five months of 2023 (+18%). Switzerland is still in negative territory, at 172.4 million euros (-1.8%), with Austria growing, however, by +3.1%, to 52.8 million euros. Germany performed well, increasing its imports of Italian wine by 1.8% between January and May 2023, totalling 479 million euros. The Netherlands grew, albeit almost imperceptibly, to 95.3 million euro, as did Belgium, which has imports worth more than 90 million euro, both at +0.9% in the first five months of 2022.
In Northern Europe, Denmark does not buck the trend, with exports falling to 61.6 million euros, a 12.7% drop in the first five months of 2023. Unfortunately, Sweden follows the rest of the Region, with a -2.7% decrease and a total of 84.9 million euros. Norway’s fall is also worsening, losing 6.8% from January to May 2023, to 44 million euros. The second good news comes from the United Kingdom, which, despite inflation, recorded a 0.2% GDP growth in the second quarter of the year, while it imported 299 million euros of Italian wine in the first five months of the year, a 1.8% increase over 2022.
Russia continues to grow, with political differences with European governments having no effect on shipments of Italian wine, which had a turnover of 58.9 million euros (+73.8%) during the period. Bad, for the first time since the end of the most acute phase of the pandemic, i.e. since 2020, our main trading partner, the United States, closed at 751.5 million euros (-2.3%). Still down, but less than the last observation, exports to Canada, at 137.7 million euros (-19.2%). Finally, the Asian markets, with Japan losing 5.4% on 2022, ending at 73.4 million euros, while China, albeit still in the red, improves slightly on the April figure, ending at 39 million euros, bringing the drop over the first five months of 2022 to -19.3%. In line with the previous year, 11.8 million euros of Italian wine were purchased in Hong Kong (+3%), which does not break through to Taiwan, stopping at just 7.8 million euros (-19.2% ).