Wine: a contrasting first half-year for Italy
In the first six months of 2024, the Italian wine market contracted due to the persistence of economic uncertainty. This result was compensated by exports, which were positive especially in the USA and UK. Among Italy’s competitors, France is suffering while Australia is recovering.
Nomisma’s latest Wine Monitor Report on the first half of 2024 shows situations of light and shade, with different trends according to the various markets. Specifically, Italy suffered a contraction in sales regarding all distribution channels (retail -3% by volume and +1% by value) but not in all categories. For still and sparkling wines, the fall in volumes is greater in e-commerce, while it is less evident in the discount store segment. In contrast, for spumantes, the variation is upwards in all segments (highest in discount stores), except in the Cash&Carry segment.
«These numbers highlight once more how the factor which is most affecting the sales of wines in Italy is the continuation of economic uncertainty which is reflected in the spending capacity of consumers. This uncertainty also affects out-of-home consumption, particularly in restaurants»
affirmed Denis Pantini, Nomisma’s Agrifood and Wine Monitor Manager. In this regard, it should be noted that, after a growth in food consumption (food&beverage) in the Horeca channel at +7% in the first quarter of the year, the second quarter instead recorded a slowdown, taking the variation to +4.5%.
The recovery in exports
While Italy shows signs of weakness, there has been a recovery at international level. Even though wine imports in the main 12 global markets, representing over 60% of global purchases of wine by value, remained negative (-4%), there was an improvement compared to the cumulative figure for the first quarter, when the decline was -9%.
The importation of wine from Italy, moreover, recorded improved performances compared to the general trend of other countries. Purchases of Italian wines by value are positive in the United States (+5.7%), the United Kingdom (+4.7%), Canada (+1.3%) and in Brazil, and down in Germany (-9%) and in Asian countries (Japan, China and South Korea).
Regarding individual categories, for Italian still and sparkling wines, there was an “improvement” compared to the first quarter of this year. The drop in purchases in the top global markets reduced in intensity, arriving at -2% by value, with results bucking the trend (and therefore positive) in the United States, UK, Canada and Brazil. Compared to the first half of 2023, imports of Italian spumantes show +4.5% by value, with growing numbers in the United States, UK, France, Canada, Australia and Brazil. In contrast, the fall in purchases of Italian spumantes continued in Germany, Switzerland and Japan.
The growth of Prosecco exports, however, is unstoppable: +12% by value in the cumulative first 5 months of this year.
France’s wine industry in crisis
The worst hit, in this historical moment, seems to be French wine, which is suffering more than others the effects of this negative economic situation on a global level: -10% of the value of exports from France in the first half-year of 2024, with a fall that reaches -17% in the case of Champagne and -16% for Bordeaux reds, while even those from Burgundy (-7%) have not been spared. Exports from New Zealand are also down (-3%), while the figures for Spain, Chile and the United States are positive. Australia is growing strongly (+28%), recovering after the fall in 2023.
«The recovery made by Australian wines can be entirely explained by the super-tariffs that the Beijing Government has revoked since March this year: net of the return in the Chinese market, Australia exports to the rest of the world, in fact, record a further cumulative fall of 11% in the first half of 2024» Pantini concludes.
