Nomisma Wine Monitor: the USA in first place for wine consumption, but imports will decline in 2023

The United States has repeated its top position in the world ranking of wine consumption, at an overall figure of more than 30 million hectoliters, though slightly less than previous years. It has been confirmed also the main world importer, boasting more than 6 billion euros in value of wine purchases from abroad, even though 2023 has shown -11% less compared to the previous year. France is still the United States' number one trading partner, holding more than 37% of the market share, followed by Italy, whose export value in 2023 fell below 2 billion euros (-11.4% in value for 2022). However, our Country has maintained a market share of over 30%. This is the snapshot taken from the Nomisma Wine Monitor report, the Observatory dedicated to the wine market. It was created with the aim of helping companies and institutions in the Italian wine supply chain to correctly interpret the dynamics of the market, and it analyzes the performances of Italian wine in the United States and Canada.
In general, all of the United States top five trading partner Countries have been decreasing in terms of export value. In spite of this, however, France and Italy have consolidated the top two positions in terms of market shares. “In 2023, both in the USA and Canada, the trend is opposite to the previous year, and there’s a decrease in wine imports, due to multiple factors”, Denis Pantini, head of Nomisma Wine Monitor, reported, “starting with an excess of purchases, above the average in 2022, by importers, which generated an overstock, then the monetary tightening of the Federal Reserve (FED), which reduced consumer spending capacity, and also paying more attention to everything that can be considered healthy”. As far as bottled wines are concerned - except for sparkling wines - in 2023 imports into the United States decreased in value and volume, following an exceptionally brilliant 2022, especially in value. France and Italy almost equally share two-thirds of the market share, followed by New Zealand, Spain and Australia. In Canada, imports of bottled wines are following the general trend of all typologies of wine, that is, a slightly higher decrease in value (-15.2%). In this segment, France holds the first position in the ranking of trading partners, passing ahead of the United States. The two Countries share almost 50% of the overall market share, and Italy is just behind them.
In the sparkling category, there have been sharp decreases in volume and value. In this context, Italy is the Country that performs not quite as badly among the United States’ “top 5 partners”, consolidating its second place position in terms of market shares (36.4% of the total), behind France, which has, however, seen the value of exports to the USA decrease by a fifth compared to 2022. In Canada, instead, the sparkling wine segment has not been able to confirm the market increases registered in 2022, registering instead decreases in value and volume of imports. In 2023, the value (+2.4%) of imports of “large formats”, a niche of the US market, will be stable as it will on the Canadian market as well, which will register +8.2% of imports in volume of wine in 2 to 10 liter containers. Regarding imports of bulk wine, in the United States there have been significant drops in both value and volume. In this not so positive scenario, Italy has improved slightly, reaching a market share of 6%. Even in Canada, this type of wine imports are decreasing in value, but remaining stable in volumes. Here, though Italy has lost ground, joining France in fourth place among commercial partners, following more than 30% decreases in value and volume. Lastly, the overall negativity registered in 2023 has also affected exports of Italian PDO wines to the USA, which fell -4.8% in value and more than -10% in volume (cumulative January-November 2023 compared to 2022).
Prosecco is still the number one Italian wine exported, though there has been a slight decrease. There have been positive growth trends also in the white wines of Trentino Alto-Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia, as well as in Sicilian whites. The worst performances instead, have been those of semi-sparkling wines (and, among these, Lambrusco). On the Canadian market, exports of PDO wines registered a decrease in value and volume, generated primarily by the collapse of Venetian reds, which lost almost 30% in export value. The PDO reds of Tuscany, however, are still in first place in the ranking among the best-selling denomination wines in the country, followed by Prosecco.