INTERNATIONALIZATION, BUYERS, EXPORT, BIO AND TRAINING: THESE ARE THE KEY WORDS OF THE 48TH EDITION OF VINITALY, THE MOST IMPORTANT ITALIAN WINE EVENT IN THE WORLD, TAKING PLACE APRIL 6-9 AT VERONAFIERE. FOCUS - RESEARCH, WINE TASTING, CONFERENCES

Internationalization, buyers, export, bio and training - these are the keywords of the 48th edition of Vinitaly (www.vinitaly.com), the most important Italian wine festival in the world, from April 6 to 9 at VeronaFiere, which will put key issues of the present and future on the table: exports that luckily are continuing to grow; mass retail in Italy, which now carries 70% of all Italian wine; consumer trends that are more and more interested in "bio wine” and training, more and more important for training professionals in the world wine business that is getting bigger and more complex.

“Vinitaly wants to be more and more "system and platform" on the world market for the internationalization of Italian wine firms", said Ettore Riello, President of VeronaFiere. Also to support an industry that has been historically in contrast to the national economy for years.
“Comparing the national GDP with wine exports from 2001 to 2012”, said Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Verona Fiere, “we saw that the GDP grew 1.9% in 2001 while wine exports grew 5.5% . The GDP fell 2.5 % in 2012 while wine exports continued to grow 6.5%, having reached peaks of 11.6% and 12.4% in the two previous years. We would certainly all be happier if the national GDP grew like the wine industry, but of course we are particularly proud to be an important part of the Italian wine system , because we believe we have contributed to this result”.

supporting the internationalization of Italian wine is one of the novelties of Vinitaly 2014 - “International Buyers' Lounge” is a new area specifically dedicated to business to business meetings, involving Consortiums and wineries on the one hand and foreign buyers on the other. There are two initiatives, "Taste & Buy" for wine & spirits business to business, where encounters with selected foreign operators, organized by Vinitaly start trading, and the wine store International Buyers' Club will be available to all foreign operators at the fair with free wine tastings specially selected by companies for international markets”.
And, since for years growth has been abroad, as even the 2013 numbers indicate, with exports that ( official data pending) have grown (if only in value ) +7.6% and are expected to exceed 5 billion US dollars in 2013. Another growing phenomenon, which will be in the spotlight, is "bio", to which "Vinitalybio", a salon reserved for certified organic wines is dedicated, produced in collaboration with FederBio. The intent is to enhance the wine production, which follows the EU regulations and to respond to a specific market demand, particularly in the countries in Northern Europe, North America and the Far East”.

The European Parliament Agriculture Committee chairman, Paolo De Castro, has reiterated the importance of the wine sector for the growth of the Italian agri food. “if we applied the results obtained by Italian wine abroad to the food supply chain, we could easily double its current 33 billion euros in exports. Of course, to achieve this we need many Vinitalys; in other words, many fairs willing to assist companies and put them in the system”.

This subject and much more will be discussed at Vinitaly. It will be once again the chance to measure the state of health of Italian wine. This, and more, will be discussed at Vinitaly.