WineNews analysis (on ISTAT data) reveals Italian wine exports down -3.4% in the first 10 months of

Italian wine is not actually doing all that badly on the international scene. Of course, it is far off the growth it had seen in recent years. However, the Italian statistics agency ISTAT data on worldwide exports of Italian wine, which WineNews analyzed, has revealed that all in all, in the first 10 months of 2020 the decline has been limited, even during such a complicated year, especially for away from home consumption, which wine is tightly linked to. The numbers, as we mentioned, speak for themselves. The value of shipments in October touched 5.11 billion euros, compared to 5.29 billion euros in the first 10 months of 2019, equal to a 3.4% decrease.
The main outlet market is still the United States, which registered 5.5% drop in wine imports from Italy, going down to 1.21 billion euros in value. Germany has done better, actually, but closed 2020 with a new lockout of bars and restaurants. We will have to see whether and how much this will damage Italian wine, which in the first 10 months of last year grew + 4.1%, reaching 873 million euros. The most significant and loud crash, hoping that it is not just an anticipation of Brexit, was Great Britain. In one year, overseas shipments lost 9.6%, falling to 567 million euros, from 626 million euros in the first ten months of 2019.
The Covid-19 storm has not phased Switzerland, though, which has closed in line with 2019. The decrease is just 0.3%, while 303 million euros of Italian wine were imported in the first ten months of 2020. Canada is also in line and perfectly balanced with 2019, at 299 million euros. The sixth market for Italian wine production, and Prosecco is in the first place, is France, which tumbled to -11.9% going down to 156 million euros. This is definitely not a good period for France mainly because first of all it has to deal with the collapse of its exports on the US market. Sweden has done a lot better, and reached 153 million euros in imports from Italy, up +2.7%.
In the Far East, the first area hit by the Pandemic, the decrease on the two main markets is unmistakable. In Japan, shipments fell to -18.7%, tumbling to 126 million euros, while China was even worse, at -28.3%, and Italian wine imports, in the first ten months of 2020, dwindled to just 70 million euros. Therefore, Beijing is now out of the top ten of the most important Italian wine markets, and has been surpassed by Austria, at 85.9 million euros, stable in the first ten months of 2019, Russia, also in line with the previous year, at 97 million euros of wine imports from Italy, and Norway, which instead scores the best achievement: + 26%, and 97.9 million euros of Italian wine purchased in the first ten months of 2020.