WineNews analysis (based on Istat data): in the first 11 months of 2020 Italian wine exports -2.8%

If the Italian agri-food sector, as a whole, closed 2020, the year of the pandemic, with a new record of exports, which arrived in value at 46.1 billion euros, 1.8% more than in 2019, that of wine is heading towards numbers decidedly less worrying than one might have expected: in the first 11 months of 2020, in fact, as revealed by Istat data, analyzed by WineNews, wine shipments reached 5.75 billion euros, 2.8% less than the same period in 2019. A downward contraction compared to October 2020, when the trend said -3.4%, in the hope that the last month confirms the substantial resistance of the sector, able, by diversifying channels and markets, to respond to emergencies.
The United States, the first market for Italian wine shipments, reached 1.335 billion euros, 4.8% less than in the first 11 months of 2019, when they reached 1.402 billion euros, but also in this case an improvement on October’s data. Excellent, remaining in North America, the performance of Canada, further demonstrating the goodness and effectiveness of the free trade treaties with Europe, Ceta, which pushes shipments to 321.9 million euros, up 1.3% from 317 million euros in the same period last year.
Back in Europe, Italy’s leading trading partner, Germany, increased imports of Italian wine in the first 11 months of 2020 by 2.8%, for a total turnover of 979 million euros. Great Britain slowed down its fall, closing however with a drop of 6.9%, to 662 million euros, also due to the end of the year tailspin, before definitively leaving the European Union and the single market. Switzerland also did well, in substantial balance, in the first 11 months of 2020, on the same period of 2019, closed at 347 million euros, from 344 a year ago. Italian wine, on the other hand, loses important ground in France, but this is not surprising: the collapse of shipments from the transalpine cousins, who lost a billion euros in 2020, leads to the contraction of imports, which from Italy stop at 168 million euros, 13% less than last year (193 million euros).
Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, continue to grow, where the tightening and restrictions as a response to the pandemic, after the laxity of the first wave, have aligned with the rest of Europe. Thus, Sweden grows by 3.6%, to 174 million euros (from 168 million euros in 2019), and Norway by as much as 28.1%, a real boom (from 89 million euros in 2019). It takes a small step backward Austria, which leaves 2.1% on the road and goes from 96.4 to 94.4 million euros. Even more evident is the drop in Russia, which loses 4.2%, going from 118 to 113 million euros of wine imported from Italy in the first 11 months of 2020.
The journey through the numbers of Italian wine shipments ends in Asia, where China, now entrenched in a sort of post-pandemic autarchy, continues to decline, and after 11 months Italian wine imports mark -31.1%, to 84 million euros, from 122 million euros in 2019. The situation in Japan does not improve, nor does it get worse, where the drop is in line with the October figure: -19%, to 136 million euros (from 168 million euros in 2019). Finally, the Hong Kong market, the port of entry of so many fine wines, which loses 13.3%, stopping at 20.9 million euros, and South Korea, the only market in the East to grow, and substantially: +23.5%, to 38.3 million euros.