The provisional ranking for the assignment of CMO Wine 2024-2025 funds has been approved

To improve wine sales in third countries, promotion, even at an institutional level, represents a great investment, especially for a country like Italy which is among the world’s wine “powers”, thanks to exports. And yesterday, the Ministry of Agriculture published the provisional ranking of the national projects of the 2024/2025 campaign, relating to the CMO measure “Promotion in the markets of third countries”, a strategic tool for companies in the wine sector that can receive funding of up to 50% for information and promotion activities of PDO, PGI, sparkling wines and varietal wines in non-EU markets; in particular, 12 projects have been approved, involving over 100 Italian wine producing companies, and which include a series of promotional initiatives aimed at promoting excellent Italian wine products in 20 foreign countries, assigning contributions of 28.5 million euros, out of a total investment that will be made by wine companies and teams amounting to 66.5 million euros. Compared to previous years, according to the Ministry, the approval takes place promptly to allow adequate planning of the activities. “With this provision, the Ministry of Agriculture has allocated all the resources available for the current year. Our objective is to improve the competitiveness of the wine sector through the opening, diversification and consolidation of foreign markets and enhance exports. Italian wine is excellence to be defended and promoted in the world and one of the most important symbols of our production and our culture”, said the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida.
News welcomed positively by Federvini, who explains that although provisional, the published ranking deserves to be applauded. “Federvini appreciates the Ministry’s attention towards the national wine sector, a sector that represents a pillar of Italian food & beverage with 19% of total exports and which today faces significant challenges on a national and international level”, underlines Albiera Antinori , president of the Federvini Wine Group. But the work doesn’t stop here: while companies will be busy starting promotional activities for the new year with the Christmas holiday period now upon us, “we ask the Ministry for a further effort by starting a discussion table in the next few weeks to find those adjustments that are still necessary to put safely once and for all this fundamental measure for the competitiveness of Italian wine in the world” concludes President Antinori.
According to Confagricoltura, analyses of the export trend of the sector over the last ten years have highlighted how it was precisely non-European countries that contributed to the increase in demand for Italian wine. The current economic scenario requires a considerable effort to promote our products on third-party markets that have undergone, like those in the EU, important changes in terms of consumption methods, preferences and purchasing channels. “With the publication, the Ministry - highlights Confagricoltura - has shown attention to the requests highlighted by companies regarding simplification, transparency and flexibility. The timing of the ranking release is also appreciated, as it reduces the delay that Italian companies were experiencing compared to competitors from other member states. With the publication, Italian companies will be able to start promotional activities starting from next October 16th. The hope expressed by Confagricoltura to the Ministry is to review the text of Ministerial Decree no. 331843 as soon as possible (of 26 June 2023) which still places stringent constraints: the objective is to broaden the margins of action of the companies participating in the tender”. In particular, explains Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv, “the publication of the rankings relating to the OCM Promotion Notice, two months ahead of last year, finally allows wine companies to better plan their campaigns in non-EU countries. It hasn’t happened for a long time, and we have to thank the Ministry of Agriculture for this”. The resources for the 2024-2025 campaign, notes Uiv - Unione Italiana Vini, are of particular importance given the need to expand market scenarios on a global scale, which are increasingly strategic also in consideration of widespread volatility in the demand for wine. This is why the acceleration of evaluation times implemented by the Ministry is significant. The Italian Wine Union (iv) also highlights how, within the limits of the rigidity of the current Decree in force, this year’s call has proven to be better in terms of bureaucratic simplification and identification of objective elements in the evaluation of projects. In addition to the funds provided by the Ministry for business projects, Italian wine companies have also been allocated 70 million euros of European funds, which have already been distributed among the Regions.