Marinos Skolarikos  2021-10-18

Founder

Sala Puccini 18 Octobre 2021 alle 14:30

2021 is a year of restart for Italian wine, after a 2020 that, thanks to the pandemic, has redesigned consumption and above all the methods of purchase and has pushed towards more local, organic wine choices, with a strong link with the territory. This is what emerged from the conference "Wine and Spirits: the challenges of Italian excellence. The structural change of companies and consumption in the post-pandemic scenario».

The data for the first seven months of 2021 show a significant growth in Italian wine exports, in the order of +14.5% on a trend basis and +10.7% on the same period of 2019, for a value that reached 4 billion euros.

The United States is confirmed as the first target market, followed by Germany, Switzerland and Canada, reference markets for Italian wine.
"Robust growth leads us to confirm a two-level strategy to face foreign markets and capture elements of more structural demand – analyzes Alessandro Terzulli, Chief Economist of Sace -. On the one hand it is essential to oversee growth markets, such as the United States and Germany, and on the other hand it is necessary to direct efforts to establish themselves on areas with great growth potential such as the Chinese and Japanese markets, or by pushing on markets of smaller proportions, but with rapid growth such as Vietnam and some Northern European countries».

In terms of regional performance, Veneto leads the export of wines with a value of 1.1 billion euros between January and July 2021 (+12% on January-July 2020), followed by Piedmont (572 million euros of exports, +22.3% trend), Tuscany (536 million sold beyond the Italian borders, for a growth of 17.2% compared to January-July 2020), from Trentino-Alto Adige and Emilia-Romagna.
The methods of purchase by consumers have also changed, with the explosion in 2020 of e-commerce and the growth of large-scale organized distribution, but also – notes Enzo Risso, scientific director of Ipsos – "with a boost to naturalness, with particular attention to organic wine and green products".

 The conference was also attended by the president of Veronafiere, Maurizio Danese, who on Vinitaly Special Edition talks about a bet won. "The decision was taken at a time of great uncertainty for the trade fair world, but as Veronafiere we wanted to be close to the world of wine with concrete facts. It's a good edition and the pandemic has accelerated some dynamics of a certain type, but the choice to have oriented Vinitaly Special Edition towards an exclusively business audience has been successful».

Today, "companies have to face new challenges and the leap to be made is first and foremost cultural, since the entrepreneurial fabric is given by small realities and family SMEs – is the opinion of Oriana Romeo, Sector Specialist of the Mediobanca Research Area -. The wineries that have achieved the best results on international markets are, in reality, the most organized and best structured in terms of size. Of course, in the future the corporate and territorial brands will increasingly be tools for protection and enhancement».
At the level of choice to purchase, continues Risso, "the consumer first orients himself towards the denomination he wants to buy and then orients himself on the cellars, but within the identified denomination".

Speakers at the round table on "Challenges, opportunities and solutions in the sector", Riccardo Pasqua, CEO of Pasqua Vigneti, Elvio Bonollo, Distillerie Umberto Bonollo Giovanni Mantovani, General Manager of Veronafiere; Mario Bruni, Director of Mid Corporate Sace. Precisely from Bruni came the advice to companies in this delicate phase of restart. "The first advice is innovation, which remains fundamental: there are an infinite number of new channels for sales, we have seen, and they must be taken into consideration – says Bruni -. The second suggestion is the integration of the supply chain: we must be stronger, because the competition is worldwide. Our products must compete worldwide, with realities that also produce other spirits. The third action on which to base the restart is exports and Sace is here to support companies in their internationalization path».

Sourse/ transilation: calnews.it / allwinestories.com

Photo Credit: www.allwinestories.com