A nightmare start to 2025, that of Italian wine exports to non-EU markets. In fact, Italian exports paid duty in the US in April, in what was an announced collapse, but above all they witness increasingly evident imbalances, with double-digit decreases from East to West that raise alarm in view of the next harvest.
Italian wine exports: the announced collapse in the US and the nightmare performance in non-EU markets
April exports of Italian wine to the United States recorded a 7.5% drop in volume and 9.2% in value (to almost 154 million euros), with an average price decrease of 2%. This was revealed by the Observatory of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV), which processed export data for the first month subject to the Trump administration’s duties (from 2 to 8 April at 20%, then at 10%).
The fall in April simultaneously causes the final figure for shipments in the four-month period to the US to drop in line (+0.9% in volume) after the exploit of the last semester characterized by a rush to pre-duty stocks. In the period, the performance in value also halves (+6.7%, 666 million euros: just a month earlier the balance was +12.5%). A collapse that was announced, notes Uiv, which makes the overall situation in extra-EU markets even more problematic: -9% volumes and -2.4% values.
“For some time now,” underlines the president of Unione Italiana Vini, Lamberto Frescobaldi, “we have insisted on looking at actual consumption and not just at shipment data, which are only now aligning after the obvious rush to stocks. Uiv believes that the increasingly evident market imbalances must be addressed with extreme urgency – and this will be the key theme of the next national assembly on July 3 – also in view of the next harvest”.
According to the Observatory, without the US drive, the balance in the four-month period of extra-EU demand in terms of volume would fall from -9% to -15%, compared to -10% in terms of value, with double-digit decreases from East to West, primarily in the Asian area (Japan and China, South Korea growing) and in Russia (-65%). The third market in the world also worsened, with the United Kingdom losing 5 points in volume and over 6 in value, while the fourth and fifth buyers of wine made in Italy, Switzerland and Canada, remained stable, with the latter outlet growing in volume by over 8%.
