ITALIAN WINE EXPORTS CLOSE THE FIRST HALF OF 2014 IN GRAY. SPARKLINGS DID VERY WELL, BOTTLED WINES STABLE, BULK WINES BAD, REVEAL ISTAT DATA BY ITALIAN WINE UNION (UIV)

The Italian wine world has kept its eyes on the vineyards lately, hoping that some sun would save an otherwise difficult, if not impossible vintage. Then, there are the latest export figures to deal with, which say the first half of 2014 is going at two different speeds. Sparkling wines keep on growing while bulk wines are falling and bottled wines are stable.
So, it balances out to nearly zero, revealed Istat data processed by UIV - Italian Wine Union (www.uiv.it). Sparkling wines showed another big performance: 19.5% export volume over the same period in 2013 (94 million liters), and 15.6% in value (329 million euros), which means a slight fall in the average price, dropping to 3.48 euros per liter (3.2% less). Britain is crucial for Italian bubbles, as it is the number one market and in just one year has grown 51.8% for 21.1 million liters imported, and a value of 65 million euros. In second position there is the United States that however, had the biggest growth (+ 17.7% and17.4 million liters of imported sparkling), together with Germany that dropped 17.2% and Russia, which, thanks to the international situation, cut purchases by 30.8%.
The most important category is still by far bottled wines. Exports in the first half of 2014 have remained at the same level as last year, for 593 million liters, and a small, but comforting growth in value of 2%, for 1.82 billion euros. Among the bottled wines, the performance of sparkling wines is not very encouraging. Exports have recorded 4.8% in quantity and 4.3% in value, and only the DOP have grown (+7, 5%).
The export of red and white wines with denomination of origin remained essentially stable, at 207 million liters (0.8% less over the same period in 2013), while both IGP (+ 1.4%, at an altitude of 225 million liters), and the common wines (+ 7.9%, 48 million liters) have grown. Sweet and dessert wines did well with more than 2.5 million liters in the first half and a plus 1.7%. On the podium of the leading importers, the United States, Italy's first winemaking partner, and the United Kingdom dropped, respectively, at 3.3% less and 5.4% less. Germany is still solidly in second place for imported values, with an increase of 3.7%. The performance of Italian bottled wines is particularly significant in France (+11.5% in the first half of 2014, at 21.3 million liters and 44 million euros) and in China (+ 6.2% at 8.5 million liters, for 25 million euros, down 2.3% on the same period in 2013).
The bad news comes from bulk wines due to the competition with Spain that has flooded the market with cheap wine after their exceptional 2013 vintage, especially in countries such as France and Germany.
The result is a significant loss in value that dropped overall 17.9%, compared to volume that more or less was stable, down only 2.4%. More than half the Italian bulk product goes to Germany, where revenues have gone from 115 million euros to 79.9 million euros, a 30.6% drop, compared to a decline in volume that stopped at 5.1% less. Hungary and France, the second and third largest markets for volume also did badly for Italian bulk wines. In Hungary exports dropped in value to almost half (46.1% less), while volume held (3.7% less for 25.8 million liters), while in France volume dropped 6.3% and 27.5% in value. In absolute contrast, finally, the United States, which in the first six months of the year imported 35% more bulk wine from Italy, for a turnover that almost doubled (+101.4%), and 10 million euros.