No signs of ‘imminent danger’ for Italian wine exports to the United States. This is what explains a survey carried out on the occasion of Vinitaly 2018 trade show (15 to 18 April in Veronafiere) by Alleanza cooperative Agroalimentari (the Italian Agri-food Cooperatives Alliance) among its members, who hold the leadership in Italian wine exports to the USA. In fact, more than a half of the wine volumes exported to America are marketed by cooperative wineries. With all the caution that must accompany forecasts on the decisions of a president like Donald Trump – comments Ruenza Santandrea, Wine Coordinator of Italian Agri-food Cooperatives Alliance – we believe at the moment quite remote the hypothesis that the new protectionist policies flaunted by the United States will affect Italian and European wines. This kind of measures are in fact usually chosen to defend very strong local production against competition from foreign goods that enter at low and competitive prices. This is certainly not the case with wine, since our bottles are sold in the USA at average high prices and certainly not lower than those of Californian wines. Moreover, American consumers are major importers of Italian wines with a marked preference for high-end labels and they do not have an internal production that guarantees self-sufficiency. It is very difficult to imagine that they suddenly stop needing to import.
The problems with Italian wine exports
The survey revealed some critical issues. First of all with regard to the unfavourable exchange rate, which is generating slight losses in turnover. Italian wine exports to the USA are also affected by a problem – which occurred two years ago – in the allocation of European funds for wine for promotion in third countries. The blockage of funding for projects submitted by Italian companies, most of which were intended for promotion activities in the USA, has created a situation in which sales of Italian wines have been severely damaged to the great advantage of France. Nevertheless, the United States is still the leading market in terms of value for Italy. According to the latest ISMEA figures, exports of Italian wine to the USA in 2017 grew in value by 4.2% compared to 2016, reaching 1.4 billion euros.