Italian wine exports hold up and worth 7.77 billion, -0.8% on record 2022

The final sprint that would have flipped the sign, from negative to positive, did not come. But, for the Italian wine world, the much-feared 2023, will not end so far from 2022, hailed as the year of records for exports. Provisional Istat data, over the twelve months, analyzed by WineNews, speak of 7.77 billion euros compared to 7.87 billion in 2022, a “only” 0.8% slowdown for Italian wine exports. Even the quantity figure does not deviate much, we went, in fact, from 2.16 billion liters in 2022 to 2.14 in 2023 (-0.9%).
The scenario, among the most important markets, is fragmented, but with some interesting evolutions: the United States remains, firmly in place, the main partner despite a decline that is nevertheless contained. Europe is becoming more and more “attractive” with important growth in France, but also the confirmation, with so much positive sign, of Germany as the second market for Italian wine, ahead of the United Kingdom, which, in 2023, bought more wine on the previous year. The “pains” come from the East, with China, Japan and South Korea continuing to pull away, a trend that will probably have to give pause for thought and perhaps cause some market strategies to change.
Analyzing individual markets, the United States in 2023 hit 1.76 billion euros in exports, it was 1.86 billion euros in 2022, a decline, therefore, of -5.3%. Germany with 1.19 billion continued its growth (+2.7%), as did the United Kingdom with 843.1 million euros (+3.9%). Down from the podium is Switzerland, which, however, overtakes Canada, thanks to 419.7 million euros just below (-1.5%) 2022 values. Canada is, therefore, the fifth largest market by value for Italian wine exports, with 388.8 million euros with a decline, which is starting to be significant, of -9%, in contrast to France, which touches 316.2 million and makes a significant leap of 10.1% over 2022. Also doing well is the Netherlands (+3.8%), which surpasses 240 million euros while Belgium holds its own with 235.4 million euros (-1.6%) as does Sweden (-1.5%), which overtakes Japan, thus becoming the ninth largest market for Italy, slightly exceeding 193 million euros. A market, that of Japan, which was worth just under 200 million euros in 2022, has dropped by almost 16 million, stopping at 183.6 million (-7.9%), confirming the difficulties it is going through. And then there is Russia, which had appeared to be on the upswing in the last survey and closes 2023 with 158.6 million euros (-7.7%), ahead of Denmark, which, on a percentage level does even worse (-8.5%) at 144.8 million euros in value, and Austria, which instead shows a growing interest in Italian wine (141 million euros, +3% on 2022). Also going down is Norway, which now stops at 103.5 million (-6.26%), and China, whose exports are at 100.1 million euros in value (-10.22%), with South Korea plummeting to the bottom (-32.5%), barely exceeding 51 million euros due to a crisis in the eastern market confirmed, albeit with a better trend, but still at a loss (close to -7.5%), by Hong Kong, a marketplace worth 25.3 million euros.
The overall figure, therefore, does not appear too negative as was presaged a few months ago, but this does not mean that there is no shortage of difficulties. If overall export " income," for the wineries of Italy, in fact, is equal to that of 2022, and if it is true as it is that wine production and shipping costs have increased significantly, it is easy to think, for example, that margins (as moreover predicted by several studies) have shrunk further for companies. But this will be seen in more in-depth analyses of 2023 budgets in the coming weeks. In the background, there remains a change in wine consumption (almost everywhere declining), between health and beyond, an economic and geopolitical uncertainty that, for sure, does not favor optimism and trade, although, many expect a full-fledged recovery from the second half of 2024. The positive fact, however, is that Italian wine, on the whole, continues to be well-represented in glasses around the world, and it is from here that the sector must restart and look to a future that is all to be written.