Italian wine exports in 2020 reached 6.29 billion euros. A result that marks a drop by -2.2% compared to 2019, but a growth by +0.8% compared to 2018. This is what emerges from the elaborations of the Qualivita Wine Observatory on Istat data, which describe the complicated year of this sector.
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The data are the result of contrasting trends between the various periods of 2020. Last year Italian wine exports had in fact started extremely positively compared to an excellent 2019, growing by +5.2% in the first quarter (1.51 billion in the first three months of the year compared to 1.44 in 2019). From the following month the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency began to be felt more strongly with a sharp drop in exports (in May they dropped by -24.3%) for an overall result of -12.6% in the second quarter (1.38 billion in 2020 compared to 1.57 billion).
Italian wine exports – top trending countries (2020/2019, in value)
| Ukraine | +31.3% |
| Norway | +29.4% |
| Netherlands | +17.5% |
| Finland | +10.9% |
| Mexico | +7.7% |
| Sweden | +4.9% |
| Germany | +3.9% |
| Belgium | +3.7% |
The third quarter began to show resilience (-1.9%), with an overall result of 1.56 billion compared to 1.59 billion in 2019. Positive signs, however, came especially in the fourth quarter of 2020 (+0.7%). Exports grew strongly in November and December, with an overall result of more than 1.84 billion compared to 1.83 billion in 2019.
Exports of Italian wine by country (2020, in volume, kg)
| Country | 2019 Exports | 2020 Exports | Share | Variation |
| Germany | 581,343,924 | 561,479,929 | 27% | -3.4% |
| USA | 348,138,698 | 345,548,390 | 16% | -0.7% |
| UK | 280,235,869 | 275,443,246 | 13% | -1.7% |
| France | 96,554,700 | 81,236,011 | 4% | -15.9% |
| Canada | 77,718,140 | 78,276,223 | 4% | +0.7% |
| Switzerland | 74,091,403 | 75,705,453 | 4% | +2.2% |
| Sweden | 51,345,167 | 58,319,557 | 3% | +13.6% |
| Netherlands | 47,625,491 | 55,732,929 | 3% | +17% |
| Russia | 52,899,886 | 50,547,959 | 2% | -4.4% |
| Belgium | 41,580,846 | 48,130,072 | 2% | +15.8% |
ITALIAN WINE EXPORTS BY DESTINATION COUNTRY
Difficulties concerned above all Asian markets (-12.6%), but also in America there was a drop in sales by -4.3%, while exports to European countries, which together represent 62% of Italian wine total exports, held up (+0.2%). Among the main destinations, the United States posted a -5.6% drop (the US market failed to recover in the second half of the year), while Germany posted a +3.9% increase thanks above all to the positive trend in the second half of the year.
Sales in the UK suffered a significant drop (-6.4%), while Switzerland, after a negative first half, confirmed the previous year’s results with +0.3% on 2019. Italian wines in Canada did well (+1.4%), and even more so in the Netherlands (+17.5%, for almost 200 million euros) and in Sweden (+4.9%). In the non-EU markets, sales fell in Russia (-2.3%) and, above all, in China (-26.5%), albeit it still accounts for a very small portion of Italian wine exports (1.6%).
Exports of Italian wine by country (2020, in value, €)
| Country | 2019 Exports | 2020 Exports | Share | Variation |
| USA | 1,539,576,608 | 1,453,822,002 | 23.1% | -5.6% |
| Germany | 1,034,788,609 | 1,074,953,233 | 17.1% | +3.9% |
| UK | 762,987,865 | 714,178,634 | 11.4% | -6.4% |
| Switzerland | 380,908,771 | 382,113,957 | 6.1% | +0.3% |
| Canada | 341,870,862 | 346,576,558 | 5.5% | +1.4% |
| Netherlands | 164,742,327 | 193,643,732 | 3.1% | +17.5% |
| Sweden | 180,355,988 | 189,117,238 | 3% | +4.9% |
| France | 206,897,175 | 184,761,655 | 2.9% | -10.7% |
| Japan | 183,101,742 | 154,455,657 | 2.5% | -15.6% |
| China | 133,479,334 | 98,131,284 | 1.6% | -26.5% |
ITALIAN WINE EXPORTS BY REGION OF PRODUCTION
Among the top five Italian regions for wine exports, four showed a significant growth in 2020: Lazio (+8.6%), Trentino-Alto Adige (+4.3%), Emilia-Romagna (+3.4%) and Piedmont (+2.6%). On the other hand, export sales of wine from Veneto (-3.3%), Tuscany (-3.2%) and Abruzzo (-1.9%) dropped. The most significant drop in sales was in Lombardy (-11.7%), Puglia (-7.6%), Sicily (-11.9%), and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (-8.9%). In volume terms, Italian wine exports fell by -2.2% compared to 2019.