ICE New York: in the first 8 months of 2018 Italian wine exports to the US are up +9.2%, but France

The United States is a two-sided market for the wine sector, and this is confirmed by the US Department of Commerce data, processed by the ICE Office in New York, updated in August, and analyzed by WineNews, which revealed a two-speed trend. In value, imports have in fact gone over 4.15 billion dollars, meaning an increase of + 7.7%, while quantities, instead, have fallen to 7.77 million hectoliters, marking a decrease of -3.5%. Italian wine is doing better than average (but it is not sufficient to be able to take back the crown from France, which is increasingly solid and the absolute number one supplier of wine on the world’s largest market), as exports grew + 9.2% in value and + 1.8% in quantity. The market share also increased, growing to 32% compared to 31.4% in 2017, and so did average prices, which reached 5.8 dollars per liter compared to 5.4 dollars per liter last year. Analyzing the data reveals that total exports exceeded 1.32 billion dollars, and wine, which makes a decisive contribution, accounted for about 40% of total Italian exports in the agri-food and beverage sector. White wines totaled 464 million dollars in exports, and are therefore the most important element of Italian wine exports to the US, holding 34% of the market. However, in the period examined, they grew only slightly in value (+ 0.5%) and also decreased slightly in quantity (-3.9%). Red wines, for a total of 450 million dollars in sales, have increased in value (+ 7.1%) but quantities have fallen just slightly (-1.2%). The sparkling wines sector is still very dynamic, accounting for 20% of Italy’s exports to the US, reaching around 280 million dollars. The sector is showing remarkable growth, both in terms of value (+ 26.1%) and quantity (+ 17.1%). Among the competitors, France, as we mentioned, is the number one supplier, thanks especially to the sparkling wines and rosé wines segment, which exceeded Italy by 84 million dollars, marking significant growth in value ​​(+ 16.8%) as well as in quantity (+8.6%). New Zealand, the third largest supplier, showed good performance in value (+7.9%), Spain which is the fourth-largest wine exporter to the US (+ 4.1%), while all the other competitors have shown sharp decreases, both in terms of value and quantity, including Australia, Argentina, Chile and Germany.