“LEADING PRICES FALL”. STAGNANT MARKETS AND PRODUCTS UNSOLD ON MAIN FOREIGN MARKETS... HARVESTING UNDER THE NEGATIVE CLOUD OF CRISIS.CONFAGRICOLTURA CALLS FOR “SALES AIDS”. REQUEST FOR GRUBBING 25,928 ACRES.

“The trend of falling prices is getting stronger especially for wines with denomination of origin labels. The markets are stagnant and there are large amounts of unsold product on our main foreign markets “. This is the comment from Federico Vecchioni, President of Confagricoltura (Italian Agriculture Organization). He adds: “It is definitely a very delicate period for the leading industry of agrifood Made in Italy. It is important to introduce national anti-crisis measures to promote the sale and marketing of our wines. The work of farmers in the vineyards must be enhanced with appropriate market policies, otherwise many will leave the sector and we will lose our tradition of manufacturing excellence.“ Alarm is not without reason, given the increasing request for explanting vineyards in the high wine production regions such as Puglia, Sicily, Emilia Romagna (total requests for grubbing in Italy reaches 25,928 hectares).

The 2009 wine harvesting production in Italy should reach, explains Confagricoltura, 47 million hectoliters and guarantee good quality throughout the country. These positive figures, however, contrast with a market in a disturbing crisis.

The analysis of the lists of wine prices Confagricoltura made in the last week of August and in the month of July 2009 saw prices reduced across the board (maximum negative peak for the DOC and DOCG label red and rosé wines was minus 2.8%). The results compared between July 2008 and July 2009 are even worse and the drop in prices much more significant (red table wine, minus 23%). Prices have fallen heavily compared to 2008 and only in the last month have slightly stabilized for table and IGT wines.