In the six months of 2021, Italian wine exports performed spectacularly well. The Unione Italiana Vini (UIV) reports that exports have increased by 16 per cent in value compared to the same period last year, while the volume rose by 6 per cent to over 10m hl. More significantly, given the circumstances of 2020, Istat statistics show the 2021 bottled wines beating the figures for pre-pandemic sales in 2019 by six percent.
Compared to the average value of the period 2015-2018, still wine sales increased mainly in Germany (+18%), the US (+12%) and Canada (+19%), while the UK declined by eight per cent.
The UIV indicates that sparkling wine sales in 2021 have increased by 75 per cent in the US compared to the average between 2015-2018, and by 45 per cent in France.
Comparing the first half of 2021 to 2020, the following growth rates have been achieved, mainly thanks to a sprint between April and June: Sparkling wines are up 26 per cent (€780m), sparkling wines come to more than €200m (+3%), bottled still wines to €860m (+16%). Still wine exports were boosted in particular by the top red wines from Piedmont (+24%) and Tuscany (+20%).
Only the bag-in-box sector declined by 7% and, of course, bulk exports, which, according to the report, suffered from "relentless competition from Spain". The Italian wine industry expects a total export value of almost 7 billion euros by the end of the year, partly thanks to new sales promotion funds amounting to €25m, which are to be made available from autumn. vc
