Italian wine exports are growing again. In the first 4 months of 2021, +4.2% on 2020 (+5.9% on 2019)

It appears that Italian wine exports are beginning to grow very well. Growth in the first part of 2021, seemed to be driven by the “second-tier” markets, in terms of absolute values, like China or Russia, compensating for the more or less negative signs registered in top markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom. This is definitely a sign of the flexibility and increasingly structured composition of wine markets, but it is also testimony of how different areas and countries in the world are reacting to the Pandemic that is taking more time to overcome than hoped. In any case, WineNews’ analysis of the Italian statistics agency, ISTAT data, updated to today, on Italian wine exports in the first quarter of 2021, which was over 2 billion euros, up 4.2% compared to 2020, is comforting on the whole (a clear countertrend compared to -3.9% in the first 3 months). However, above all, it is up + 5.8% compared to 2019, a record year, when the export value totaled more than 6.4 billion euros.
Growth is general, but it is not the same for all Countries, as we said, since many major markets are still far away from the 2020 levels. They are still down, but slightly recovering compared to previous months. For instance, the United States is still at -3.1% compared to the first 4 months of last year, though it is still the number one market in value, at 510 million euros (and as many producers over the past few months have told WineNews, there have been significant signs of recovery, ed.). The United Kingdom is the third market in value, at 170 million euros in the first quarter of 2021, but has marked a substantial loss of -12.1% compared to 2020. Canada has also slowed down, to -9.4% for 106 million euros. Germany, instead, one of the most important markets in value, has grown +4.1%, to 359 million euros, while Switzerland jumped a whopping +23%, to 133 million euros, and France has grown +11 %, to 62 million euros. Sweden, one of Italian wine’s top markets in Northern Europe, registered the same value, but lost -12.8%. China, however, registered the highest percentage growth, soaring to +73% of imported Italian wine for a total of 41 million euros, and Russia seems to be back in the race at +34%, for 37 million euros.

The data is generally encouraging, therefore, although it must be read in light of various critical issues as well as situations linked to the Pandemic which, as we have all learned during these very challenging months, can quickly change radically. The aggregate data of agro-food exports in the first 5 months of 2021 also gives us hope, though. And, according to the Italian farmers association, Coldiretti analysis, growth was + 8.9% compared to 2020, for an overall record value, around 17 billion euros.