After postponing the 54th edition of Vinitaly until 2022 and announcing a "Vinitaly Special Edition" for October 2021, the Veronafiere exhibition company has announced details of the special edition.
It is planned from 17-19 October 2021 as a presence event at the Verona fairgrounds and is to be carried out in accordance with the safety protocol of the Italian exhibitors' association Aefi. Running almost concurrently, the wine2wine Business Forum (18-19 October) will focus on Italy's market and offer the usual range of seminars.
The Vinitaly special edition will kick off with a congress with the theme of "2021 Wine States General." Fifty top managers of the international wine world as well as national institutions and representatives of the European Union will talk about the current situation and possible future scenarios of the wine industry. "The axis of the market is variable and not only because of the health emergency. According to Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor analyses, in January 2021 Italy lost 19 percent in value on the ten main markets compared to the same period last year. The data is still partial, but it makes us think about the importance of intensifying promotion for key markets in this complex period. Vinitaly, also in 2021, serves exactly this purpose," comments Giovanni Mantovani, general director of Veronafiere.
The fair company, in collaboration with the ICE agency and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, is currently preparing for the arrival (via health corridors) of selected buyers from abroad, especially from the USA and China.
The appearance of this special edition will have little in common with the usual Vinitaly. The producers will be supplied with prefabricated, uniform stands by Veronafiere. For digital networking and as a showcase, the new platform "Vinitaly Plus" will be made available to the participants. The producers' opinion of the new trade fair date is divided. On the one hand, there is joy about a signal of a new start, on the other, the date falls at the end of the harvest, which penalises small and less-structured wineries in particular. vc
