IWFI: The USA, wine import stable, but Italy is still leader in volumes and values

The USA is no longer growing: as revealed by data from the Italian Wine & Food Institute, based on information from the US Department of Commerce, for the first ten months of 2018, the long phase of reduction in wine imports continues, with an overall drop in volumes of -8.1%, in contrast to the +7.8% recorded in 2017. On the contrary, values continue to grow by +4.8%. The main eight countries exporting to the US market contributed to the reduction in volumes, supplying 96.4% of US imports.
Except for France, which continues its expansion phase (+8%) and New Zealand (+3.1%), all the other countries have recorded a decline: Chile -17.5%, Australia -17.4%, Spain -16%, Argentina -14.3%, Germany -12.7% and Italy, which limits the damage (-1.8%), but fails to reverse the course in its main landing, although they remain by far the first exporter in volume and also in value, even though they have fewer benefits compare to France.
The reduction in imports mainly affected white wines (the category that, among Italian wines, suffered the most, with a decrease of -3.8%) and red wines, which all suffered reductions, while rosé wines recorded increases ranging from 7% in Chile to 30% in France, which owes its extraordinary results to the rosé wines of Provence.
Examining in detail the data for the first ten months of 2018, according to the note of the Italian Wine & Food Institute, U.S. imports amounted to 7.22 million hectoliters, for a value of 3.68 billion dollars, compared to 7.85 million hectoliters, for a value of 3.51 billion dollars in the first ten months of 2017. Also in the first ten months of 2018, Italian exports amounted to 2.07 million hectolitres, for a value of 1.16 billion euros, compared to 2.11 million hectolitres in the first ten months of 2017, for a value of 1.1 billion dollars (+5.5%).
Imports from France amounted to 1.12 million hectolitres in the same period, worth 1.07 billion dollars, compared with 1.04 million hectolitres in the previous year, worth 912 million dollars (+14%). Looking at the different types of sparkling wine, on the other hand, the growth of US imports of sparkling wine continues, even if with a lower growth rate. Overall, in the first ten months of the year, they recorded a +9.4%, down on the trend of +11.6% recorded in 2017 and +16.1% recorded in 2016. In this segment, Italy, in the first ten months of the year, recorded a +13.7% against the +11.2% recorded in 2017 and +25.8% in 2016.