Wine & food and catering, record tourism raises sentiment and expectations for 2023

Large-scale consumption struggles, food production loses -4.5%, in the first three months of 2023 (compared to 2022), with Italians under the ax of inflation which cut consumption, and exports which, after the records in value of 2022, has not taken off in 2023. But wine & food, especially high-end, that has been one of the most penalized by the difficulties of the horeca during the pandemic, can hope for the full recovery of catering in which, also thanks to the record tourism flow expected for 2023, despite the fact that energy costs and difficulties in finding workers still represent critical issues, morale is decidedly high. And it is a sector in which investments have returned, given that it is also the one that records the highest growth rate of new openings. Reading derived from Istat and Fipe/Confcommercio data, as interpreted by WineNews.
According to the Federazione Italiana dei Pubblici Esercizi, for bars, restaurants, pizzerias and so on, the first quarter of 2023 was characterized by a fairly positive market scenario. The raw balance of responses for the entire sector is +10.8% higher than in 2022. The one on individual company performance (+16.8%) outperforms the first quarter of 2022 by twenty-four percentage points. The assessments on the trend of customer flows also show signs of recovery, with a balance of +24% compared to the same period in 2022. Good news also on the supply costs front, down by -3% on the first quarter of last year, while sales prices grew by +17.4% in response balances. Employment also did well, at +8.9%.
As a result, expectations for the second quarter of 2023 are positive, particularly in terms of economic performance. The synthetic indicator of the confidence climate, in the first quarter, remains at 116.7 and gains 24 points over the same period of 2021. It is no coincidence, then, that the accommodation and catering services sector experienced the highest percentage growth: according to Istat data, there were 28.5% more new openings in the first quarter of 2023 than in the first quarter of 2022, the highest growth at the national level, where the average is only 1.2%. All data that bodes well in view of the warm season, also considering that “food has become the main item of the holiday budget in Italy with over a third of the expenditure destined for the table to consume meals in restaurants, pizzerias, trattorias or agritourisms, but also for street food or food and wine souvenirs in markets, festivals and village fairs”, recalls Coldiretti, in reference to the Istat hearing before the Productive Activities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies on the Strategic Plan for Tourism. “It is - underlines Coldiretti - an economic impact that is estimated at around 30 billion euros, divided between Italian and foreign tourists who increasingly choose Italy as a holiday destination for the best at the table”. A demand that also drives small villages where the presences of 2022 exceed the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, with an increase of +13.7% according to Istat. That is, in many of those “municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants where 92% of typical national products are born”, according to the Coldiretti/Symbola survey.