From Chicago to Belgrade, from the USA to the Balkans, the international autumn of Italian wine with Vinitaly

Consolidate leadership and relaunch growth in a critical market for Italian wine, such as the United States, while also working to expand in the promising Balkan region. With these goals, the hot autumn for internationalising Vinitaly and Italian wine begins, with two new fairs scheduled: starting from the United States (the first foreign market for Italy’s wineries, with 897.1 million euros in the first half of 2023, according to Istat data, but down by -6.8% on the first half of 2022), with the International Wine Expo (Iwe) in Chicago, on 22 and 23 October, marking the debut of the collaboration between the Chicago Chamber of Commerce, Italian Expo and Vinitaly, to arrive in Serbia (Wine Vision by Open Balkan, Belgrade 16-19 November) with Veronafiere taking part in the organization of the “Italia Area”. The business perspective for both events is also supported by a partnership with Ice - Italian Trade & Investment Agency - for the selection of a significant contingent of buyers.
Over 200 Italian companies from across the country will be present in Chicago, with over 1,000 labels to be tasted, for a match with 350 operators of qualified demand - beginning with the horeca sector - primarily from the Midwest, a region with over 70 million inhabitants (2.6 million Italians) and an annual consumption of nearly 800 million bottles of wine. Among the tastings which will involve 68 labels, there is also the masterclass of the “Decanter” magazine with the best Italian wines at the top of the “World Wine Award 2023” of the same name (which we reported here).
“The International Wine Expo (Iwe) in Chicago marks our trade fair debut in the world’s leading consumer country, according to Federico Bricolo, president of Veronafiere. Our partners’ quality and level of innovation over the years have convinced us that this new alliance could prove strategic for Vinitaly right from the start. The development opportunities for creating a reference point for Italian wine in a commercial centre of high interest are significant”. Returning from the other side of the Atlantic, the “Italy Area of Wine Vision” in Belgrade involves a demand that, from the Balkans, extends to all of Eastern Europe and Austria. “Thanks to the institutional agreements with the Governments of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania which established the Open Balkan economic zone - commented Maurizio Danese, at Veronafiere - Vinitaly together with Ice becomes the commercial player of Italian wine at the main wine fair of the South -Eastern Europe. The goal is to strengthen a business-to-business relationship that involves the demand of a macroregion that, even in a difficult year like this, is growing by double digits”.
In the first half of 2023, according to the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory, the increasing trend in sales of Italian wine in the 16 considered countries (Albania, Austria, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Turkey) was 16.5%, for a value in the half-year of 243 million euros. Growth which goes against the trend of the global performance of the sector in the first half of the year (-0.4%) and confirms Italian leadership in the area.