Italian wine shipments in the first 9 months of 2021 have topped 5 billion euros (+15%)

Italian wine shipments are forging ahead on foreign markets and not even thinking about stopping. The report on the first 9 months of 2021, as the latest ISTAT data revealed, registered +15.1% jump in growth compared to the same period in 2020, and turnover grew from 4.45 to 5.13 billion euros. Everything seems to be going well, and the new trends since the beginning of the year are confirmed. First of all, the “thirst for wine” in the United States, where employment data has agitated the Biden government but do not seem to curb the expansionist pressure of consumption. It is not surprising that Canada, which has steadily been the fifth market for Italian wine shipments, is now right behind Switzerland. Germany and Great Britain are growing at the same pace, although in the land of Albion there is still a lot of work to do about the race to the lowest average price, which risks turning into a trap. The double-digit growth in France is surprising, now the third (not unusual) destination for Prosecco exports, behind the US and the UK, as is the pace of Sweden and the Netherlands. Finally, at least for a few more months, China and Russia are in their own race, since the first collapsed under the blows of Covid-19 in 2020, while the second is recovering following years of stagnation and degrowth.

The WineNews analysis of the latest ISTAT data revealed that Switzerland, in the first 9 months of 2021, imported 292 euros of Italian wine (+12.7% compared to the same period in 2020), France, at 153 million euros is up on 2020 (+11.7%), while Austria imported 80 million euros of Italian wine (+2.6% on 2020). In Germany, the second largest export market, Italian wine marked 815 million euros (+7% compared to 2020) in turnover, while in the Netherlands Italian wine exports reached 153 million euros (+15.9% on 2020 ), more or less on the same levels as Sweden, at 150 million euros (+11.1% on 2020), and Norway importing slightly less than in 2020 (-1.7%), or 82.2 million euros of wine from Italy. Great Britain topped the half billion euros barrier (507 million euros, to be precise), up +6.1% compared to 2020, and Russia still on top, at 96 million euros (+29% compared to 2020).

Data from the United States is impressive, as it has been since the beginning of the year: in just 9 months, the number one destination of Italian wine imported 1.31 billion euros of wine, up +23.6% compared to 2020. Also we must not underestimate the signals coming from Canada, at 281.6 million euros of wine imported from Italy (+11.5% compared to 2020). Japan is continuing its slow recovery, marking 121 million euros (+7.1% on 2020), though still far from 2019 numbers. On the contrary, China, at 91.7 million euros of wine imported from Italy, confirms its strong growth compared to the disastrous 2020 (+53.1%). Finally, South Korea, now definitely to be taken into account, marked 60.7 million euros (+114.5% on 2020), and Hong Kong, the privileged gateway for many Italian fine wines, which has imported 21.2 million euros of wine in the first 9 months of 2021 from Italy (+32.5% compared to 2020).