Shipments of Italian wine, in the first 10 months of 2021, at 5.82 billion euros: +13% on 2020

2022 will inevitably lead to a significant adjustment in wine prices, which will have to reckon with the boom in the cost of raw materials, fuel, energy and transport and with inflation - up by +3.9% in December 2021 compared to December 2020 - at the highest levels since 2012. A necessity that could lead to a contraction in exports in the coming months, at least in terms of volume, while in terms of value, the hope is to continue along the path mapped out in 2021 destined to mark a new record for shipments of Italian wine abroad. This is confirmed by export data for the first 10 months of 2021 (processed by Istat), with Italian wine production at 5.82 billion euros, up +13.23% on the same period in 2020, and +10% on 2019.
The only markets that have not yet recovered their pre-Covid turnover, for decidedly different reasons, are Great Britain and Japan, while Norway is the only major market that has fallen slightly on 2020. Impressive, on the other hand, are the performances of the United States and Germany, which together account for more than 40% of Italian wine exported worldwide.
In the WineNews analysis of the latest Istat data, in the first 10 months of 2021, Switzerland stood at 332 million euros of imported wine (+9.9% on the first 10 months of 2020 and +9.2% on 2019), while neighboring France (where Prosecco is worth 4% of total imports) comes to €187 million of wine purchased from Italy (+14.7% on 2020 and +5.6% on 2019), and Austria exceeds €90 million of imports, slightly more than last year (+1.3% on 2020 and +5.3% on 2019). Germany is confirmed, by far, as the second market outlet for Italian wine, which in the first 10 months of 2021 invoiced 917 million euros (+5.7% on 2020 and 9.3% on 2019), in the Netherlands Italian wine exports came to 175.6 million euros (+14, 2% over 2020 and +32.5% over 2019), outstripping Sweden, at 166 million euros (+9.9% over 2020 and +11.4% over 2019), and Norway, with 95.8 million euros of wine imported from Italy, showing a drop of -2.2% over the first 10 months of 2020 (but growth of +24% over 2019). The slow but inexorable recovery of Great Britain continues, closing the first 10 months of 2021 at €588.9 million (+5.3% on 2020 and -6% on 2019), with Russia coming in at €114.8 million (+17.5% on both the first 10 months of 2020 and 2019).
Ideally flying across the Atlantic, the United States has been playing a game of its own for some time now and, in the first 10 months of 2021, pushed shipments of Italian wine to 1.46 billion euros (+20% on the same period in 2020 and +14% on 2019). Even neighboring Canada, where the State Monopoly guarantees - net of a certain rigidity - market stability, continues to grow, reaching 325.8 million euros (+8.6% on 2020 and 9.9% on 2019). Finally, Asia, starting with China, which has practically returned to 2019 levels, with imports at €105 million (+48.7% on 2020 and -1.3% on 2019. Even better is South Korea, by now an important wine market player in the Far East, with €65.2 million (+97.5% on the first 10 months of 2020 and +128% on 2019). Still slow, as anticipated, are imports of Italian wine from Japan, which closed the first 10 months of 2021 at 133.4 million euros (+5.2% on 2020 and -14.3% on 2019). Finally, the gateway to China for many important wines, Hong Kong, where Italy shipped 23.3 million euros of wine (+28.7% on 2020 and +4% on 2019).