January 2023, Italian wine exports follow those of a year ago: 474.8 million euros

Where were we? At the record for Italian wine exports, which had closed 2022 at nearly 8 billion euros, as predicted by many analysts but not exceeded. Who knows, maybe 2023 might be a good year. Meanwhile, January 2023 exactly follows the trend of January 2022, with exports that, in value, stop at 474.8 million euros, of which 124.5 million euros of sparkling wines, as revealed by the latest Istat data analyzed by WineNews. The result, difficult to interpret, is in line with a year ago, when there was a certain enthusiasm dictated by the return to normalcy after nearly two years of the pandemic, but lower than the January 2020 figure, when shipments were nearly half a billion. The absolute lack of homogeneity between markets catches the eye, with few certainties (particularly in the United States and Germany) and some unexpected setbacks (particularly in Canada and the United Kingdom), in addition to a clear drop in volumes, down to 135 million total liters (-4.2%).
Proceeding in order, in January 2023 France imported 17.2 million euros of Italian wine, 34.6% more than in January 2022. Switzerland is losing a bit, where imports stop at 26.6 million euros ( -1.7%), while in neighboring Austria Italian wine exports gain 10%, reaching 9.8 million euros. Germany, as expected, is among the positive notes, with 82.4 million euros of Italian wine imported in the first month of the year, and a growth of +15.4%. The Netherlands lose something (-3.2%), to 14.8 million euros, while Italian wine grows by +8.4% in Belgium, to 15.5 million euros.
After 2022 of other times, the United Kingdom is holding back: shipments stopped in January 2023 at 41 million euros (-19%). In Northern Europe, Denmark is at 12.7%, with 9.5 million euros of imported Italian wine, Norway’s imports grow by 3.1%, to 6.9 million euros, and those of Sweden mark +8.3%, equal to 15.9 million euros. Finally, among the European markets, a positive sign also for Russia: +17% and 10.5 million euros of imported Italian wine, of which 4.5 million of sparkling wines.
On the other side of the world, the growth of Italian wine in the US market does not stop, however, limited to +1.9%, which translates into a turnover of 119.5 million euros. After very long months in positive territory, Canada is doing badly, which, in January 2023, imported just 22.8 million euros of wine from Italy, 27.8% less than in January 2022. Asia doing badly, in general: from China, which is struggling to restart, so much so that in January 2023 it imported just 3.7 million euros of Italian wine (-45.1%), to Japan, which loses 33.3% on January 2022 and stops at 7.8 million euros. South Korea, with 3.2 million euros (-21%), and Hong Kong, with 1.2 million euros (-24.5%), are doing no better, increasingly on the margins of the Italian wine market.