Italian wine shipments in the first 11 months of 2021 exceed 6.5 billion euros

While waiting for the inevitable impact of the price race of raw materials, energy and transport on wine, Italian wine exports continue to grow. In the first 11 months of 2021, they exceeded 6.5 billion euros (+12.6%), in line with the trend recorded since the beginning of last year. The numbers published today by Istat are comforting for a sector that, between the pandemic, the collapse of international tourism and the (temporarily avoided) attack by Brussels, has never had so many fronts open. Nor, at the same time, so many certainties from the markets, all growing and above the figures for the same period in 2020, from the United States to Great Britain, from China to Russia, with the hope, and not only for the world’s commercial and political balance, that Moscow will soon withdraw its troops from the border with Ukraine, restoring a climate of peace that has been lacking in the area for years.

Getting back to the numbers, and from the geographically closest countries, in the first 11 months of 2021 Switzerland imported Italian wine for 376 million euros (+8.4% over the same period in 2020), while neighboring Austria reached 102 million euros (+4%), and France, driven by the 25 million bottles of Prosecco shipped beyond the Alps in 2021, reached 207 million euros, with a new exploit of +17%. Moving up the Old Continent, imports of Italian wine into Germany reached 1.038 billion euros (+6.4%), with shipments to the Netherlands reaching 202 million euros (+14.8%). Norway is the only one of the main markets examined by WineNews to fall, losing 3.5% and stopping at 110 million euros, while neighboring Sweden is still growing, with 188 million euros (+9.3%) of Italian wine imported in the first 11 months of 2021. Good news comes from Great Britain, the third largest market for Italian wine exports at 676 million euros (+3.3%), as well as from distant Russia, which is doing very well with imports of Italian wine reaching 135 million euros (+19.4%).

On the other side of the ocean, the performance of the USA continues to impress, with just under 1.6 billion euros of Italian wine purchased in the first 11 months of 2021 (+19.5%). The Canadian market is also solid, worth 354 million euros (+10%). In Asia, Japan is also growing again, up to 141 million euros (+3.6%), but there is also growth in China, with 116 million euros (+36.8%) of Italian wine in the period January-November 2021, South Korea, increasingly a rising star of international wine consumption, with 69.8 million euros (+83.2%) of Italian wine imported, and Hong Kong, the hub of fine wine in the rich Asian market, at 26 million euros (+24%).