Italian Wine Export to the US: The Trend for the First Ten Months of 2005
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Wine is the Italian agricultural product most exported to the United States. The data for the first ten months of 2005 confirm a trend established over a long period of time. 
These values cover all types of wines across the board, from sparkling to dry wines, as well as vermouth, allowing Italy to increase its market share for a percentage almost 50% higher than the overall increase of the total wine import. Thus, Italy's exports to the US is comfortably higher than that of its major competitors, Australia and France. 2005 |
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| 2003 | 2004 | 2003 | 2004 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2004 2005 |
|
| Total | 3302.95 | 3426.54 |
100 |
100 |
2687.72 |
2767.48 |
3071.58 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
10.99 |
| Italy | 925.79 |
972.44 |
28.09 |
28.01 |
758.78 |
774.20 |
894.89 |
28.23 |
27.97 |
29.13 |
15.59 |
| France | 1121.79 |
1052.08 |
35.96 |
32.98 |
934.49 |
840.37 |
878.27 |
34.77 |
30.37 |
28.59 |
4.51 |
| Australia | 625.6 |
731.82 |
18.94 |
21.51 |
530.42 |
615.59 |
642.58 |
19.74 |
22.24 |
20.92 |
4.39 |
| Chile | 138.34 |
152.24 |
4.22 |
4.47 |
113.44 |
124.88 |
137.99 |
4.22 |
4.51 |
4.49 |
10.50 |
| Spain | 155.65 |
183.40 |
4.72 |
5.42 |
126.35 |
146.14 |
165.54 |
6.16 |
5.28 |
5.39 |
13.27 |
The data recorded during the first 10 months of 2005 confirm that the ranking of Italian wines increased their market penetration even more, up to 32.7% in the types of wine that are most requested in the US, that is, dry wines in bottles of under two liters. For these types of wines, the percentage increase is 15.77% compared to the same period in 2004. On the other hand, both Australia and France saw a decrease of their market share for this type of wines, marking an import increase of just 3.93% and 0.23% respectively.
Analyzing the volume of the imports for this type of wines during the same period, we see that the Italian wines mark an increase of 11.45% (162 million of liters, or about 42.8 million gallons), highlighting the difference compared to the Australian dry wines, which increased just the 5.32% (151 million of liters, or about 39.89 million gallons) and the French, which actually decreased their quantity by 2.37% (58 million of liters, or about 15.32 million gallons).
These data are very important in light of the future projections, which see the import and consumption of these types of wine in the US increase exponentially between now and 2015, while for sparkling wines the increase is expected to be lower.
In 2004 the most imported Italian wine was Pinot Grigio, which continues to be widely appreciated by consumers. Among the reds, the top import is Chianti, followed by Lambrusco and Merlot.
Another interesting statistic is that the American consumers favor Italian red wines compared to whites when choosing more expensive products, while on the lower end of the market, Italian white wines are favored over the reds.
With regards to sparkling wines, France continues to confirm itself at the top of the ranks, with 161 million of liters (about 42.53 million gallons) imported, however, it must be highlighted that the Italian spumante wines registered an important increase (15.29%), just a little less than twice as much the increase of French Champagne (8.97%.)
With regards to vermouth wines, Italy continues leading the pack without any serious competition and accounts for 85% of the market, for a value of $17.5 million (see value in other currencies). For these types of wine though, the increase over the previous years is just 3.6%. Far behind is runner up France, with a market share of just 8.9%, which in turn is threatened by Spain which, though based on modest quantities, saw its import for these wine increase by a three figure percentage.
US statistics report that the average cost of Italian wine per liter increased from $3.75 to $5.18 (see values in other currencies) per liter over the past five years. During the same period though, the value of Australian wines decreased from $5.06 to $4.03 per liter (see values in other currencies.) French wines remained stable at over $8 per liter.
Among the minor 'competitors' in the US market, 2005 confirms previous trends, marking good performance for Argentina and Germany, which both marked higher percentage increases than Italy, based however on much lower amounts compared to the Italian volume of export. Confirmed, too, is the positive trend for Chilean wines, which registered an increase of of 10.35% in the first ten months of 2005, securing a market share of slightly over 5%.
The imports from Europe, and especially from France, were penalized by the progressive appreciation of the Euro, the new common European currency, against the dollar. In fact, though the Euro weakened worldwide in the period between 2004 and 2005, it nonetheless registered an increase against the US dollar over this period. The exchange rate increased 10 cents between January 2004 and January 2005, penalizing the whole exports and generating fluctuating retail prices. In 2005 though, the trend changed and the dollar increased its value during the first ten months, thus favoring Italian exports during the year.
Other things that negatively affect the imports are 'conservative' marketing strategies and possible inadequacies in producer/importer relationship that sometimes have repercussions with US consumers.
The Italian wine sector has reconfirmed itself as a strategic national asset and ICE put forth a series of initiatives, such as Italian Wine Week, held in October 2005 in Chicago. The goal in 2006 is to re-launch and consolidate the current position of Italian wines in the important, but extremely demanding and sophisticated market that is the US. On January 28 and 29, a large number of Italian producers, some of whom are new to the US market, will participate in the traditional Boston Wine Expo.
| Source: Giovanni Mafodda, head of ICE, New York, Usa |
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