In UK it is more and more Prosecco-mania, with the Venetian-Friulian bubbly which in the first quarter of this year succeeded in the feat of alone exceed the sales in value of all Italian still wines put together. An unprecedented result – which the UIV Observatory (www.osservatoriodelvino.it) has recorded considering the re-exports of the product in transit above all from Belgium – which fixes the growth over the same period of the previous year of 127% in value and 74% in volume. Prosecco is now worth over 2/3 of the volumes of sparkling wines imported into the UK from all over the world.
But the analysis by Unione Italiana Vini on a customs basis carried out on imports of bottled wine from the top 3 world markets (USA, Germany and UK) returns a picture of lights and shadows. AND many unknowns about the future. The first quarter, thanks to a significant setback in April, closed with a general -1% in value (data harmonized with the dollar, equal to 1,3 billion); in terms of volume the sign turns even more negative: -4,1%, to 2,5 million hectoliters.
The analysis by the Italian Union of wines at a global level offers a picture of lights (sparkling) and shadows (still wines) of Italian exports
The effect is the combination of 2 opposite sides of the same coin: on the one hand the typology of still wines, with imported volumes falling by -10% and values at -9%; on the other, sparkling wines which soar by +17% in volume and +30% in value.
Among the countries considered, in the USA, bottled volumes recorded a trend decrease of over 2% for stills and a new leap for sparkling wines (+12%). Red light in Germany for both types – respectively at -18% and -12% -, while Italian imports in the United Kingdom it is the negative protagonist with stills (-8%) and a positive one for sparkling wines (+35%).
For the president of Unione Italiana Vini, Lamberto Frescobaldi: “We believe it is unlikely to replicate the performance of 2021, an exceptional year that recorded growth of almost 30% from April to September. This would be a normal year were it not for a conflict that has exacerbated tensions on energy costs and those of dry raw materials. A situation, to which is added inflation, which is becoming difficult and which impacts our companies on average by 20-30% more than the cost of the finished product. For this reason – concluded Frescobaldi – it will be appropriate to consider with the institutions extraordinary actions for the structuring of the sector in defense of increasingly frequent exogenous factors and in favor of new internationalization projects”.
