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First Comments On US Imports of Italian Wines in 2005
Staff Writer - February 15, 2006

The import data show that Italian wines were highly favored in the US in 2005.

Wine Bottles On Friday, February 10, 2006 the US Department of Commerce released the import data for 2005. Below we report the first comments related to the Italian wine imports, compared to those of Italy's main competitors. for all types of wines, including Vermouth.

Wine once again emerges as the top Italian export to the US in the food and agricultural sectors.

In 2005 the US imported around one third of all wine sold nationally, of which Italy made up $1.89 billion. This value marks an increase of 11.36% compared to 2004, well above the average increase percentage of worldwide imports and more than double the increases registered by France and Australia.

Italy, France and Australia alone represent about 80% of all wine imported in the US.

With regards to the value of wine imports, Italy follows France, which has a $28 million lead.

As for quantity of wine instead, Italy has a clear lead above the competition, with 222.2 million liters imported, or a 8.95% increase over 2004. Thus Italy recouped from the negative performance of the previous year, when according to the 2004 Department of Commerce, Italian wine imports decreased 6% compared to 2003. Noteworthy is the fact that Australian wine import increased more than 1 percentage point than Italy over 2004 (10.8%), thus continuing to follow close behind, with a total import of 202 million liters.

Another interesting point is that Australia continues on a trend established in recent years, importing to the US more low-cost, popular types of wines, as opposed to higher quality, more expensive products.

2005 Score		US – Wine and vermouth imports (value: million dollars)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	3,270.14	3,424.63	3,764.93	100	100	100	9,93
1	France	1,138.63	1,049.66	1,108,.8	34.82	30.65	29.46	5.65
2	Italy	930.91	972.46	1,080.96	28.47	28.40	28.71	11.16
3	Australia	626.85	731.78	765.37	19.17	21.37	20.33	4.59
4	Spain	156.30	183.68	209.62	4.78	5.36	5.57	14.12
5	Chile	139.98	152.28	166.30	4.28	4.45	4.42	9.20
6	Germany	70.79	80.88	99.41	2.17	2.36	2.64	22.91

2005 Score		US – Wine and vermouth imports (quantity: million liters)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	617.11	649.75	721.09	-	-	-	10.98
1	Italy	217.42	204.00	222.25	-	-	-	8.95
2	Australia	151.74	182.27	202.08	-	-	-	10.86
3	France	103.45	96.89	101.05	-	-	-	4.29
4	Chile	51.69	54.19	57.02	-	-	-	5.25
5	Spain	29.81	34.09	39.19	-	-	-	14.96
6	Germany	17.15	19.12	24.51	-	-	-	28.19

The data for the first 11 months of 2005 confirm the improving position of Italian wines in the US, with almost one third market share for imported bottled wine ( 31.93%) sold in 750 ml bottles. In this sector Italy imports increased 11.66% over 2004, while Australia and France imports increased 3.61% and 2.46% respectively, marking a slowdown that leaves them with 23.95% and 20.1% of market share respectively.

Imported quantities for the same type of wine rose 9.31% for Italian wines (197.9 million liters), highlighting the lower increase of Australian imports (4.6%, or 177.2 million liters) At the same time French wines import decreased slightly (0,16% or 5.4 million liters).

These data are even more important in the light of all current, reliable research and projections, according to which, sales of bottled table wine will increase considerably in the next 10 years. In the same period, consumption of sparkling wines is expected to increase considerably less in the US.

2005 Score		US – Bottled table wine imports (value: million dollars)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	2,722.57	2,830.46	3,077.46	100	100	100	9,77
1	Italy	834.39	875.98	978.09	30,65	31.25	31.78	11.66
2	Australia	615.72	711.37	737.07	22.62	25.38	23.95	3.61
3	France	751.81	603.82	618.65	27.61	21.54	20.10	2.46
4	Chile	139.58	151.42	165.10	5.13	5.40	5.37	9.04
5	Spain	115.14	139.50	161.69	4.23	4.98	5.25	15.91
6	Germany	69.42	79.01	96.60	2.55	2.82	3.14	22.26

2005 Score		US – Bottled table wine imports (quantity: million liters)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	550.73	573.16	622.21	-	-	-	8.56
1	Italy	193.19	181.05	197.91	-	-	-	9.31
2	Australia	144.59	169.45	177.24	-	-	-	4.60
3	France	81.30	75.61	75.49	-	-	-	-0.16
4	Chile	51.17	53.69	56.50	-	-	-	5.23
5	Spain	21.33	24.98	29.23	-	-	-	17.00
6	Germany	16.56	18.28	22.83	-	-	-	24.90

As usual, France has the lead in sparkling wine imports, with a whoping 78.57% market share, or 20.6 million liters imported. Italy is a distant second with 13.6% market share, though imports increased 10.27% in value and 7.5% in quantity. The value of French sparkling wines imports increased 9.4% over 2004

2005 Score		US – Sparkling wine imports (value: million dollars)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	493.77	561.86	612.59	100	100	100	9.03
1	France	379.15	440.06	481.30	76.79	78.32	78.57	9.37
2	Italy	64.63	67.97	74.95	13.09	12.10	12.24	10.27
3	Spain	40.77	43.38	46.61	8.26	7.72	7.61	7.44
4	Australia	2.21	3.35	4.16	0.45	0.60	0.68	24.28
5	New Zealand	0.20	1.01	1.80	0.04	0.18	0.30	82.60
6	Germany	1.10	1.09	1.12	0.22	0.20	0.18	2.83

2005 Score		US – Sparkling wine imports (quantity: million liters)
		Performance
		January-December			Market share %			Var. % 2005-2004
		2003	2004	2005	2003	2004	2005	Var. % 2005-2004
	Total	41.36	42.01	45.73	-	-	-	8.87
1	France	18.54	18.90	20,.69	-	-	-	9.46
2	Italy	12.53	12.65	13.60	-	-	-	7.50
3	Spain	8.35	8.68	9.27	-	-	-	6.80
4	Australia	0.41	0.73	0.83	-	-	-	14.61
5	Germany	0.40	0.36	0.43	-	-	-	18.72
6	New Zealand	0.015	0.15	0.31	-	-	-	113.51

Source: Mafodda Giovanni, ICE NEW YORK, Feruary 2005

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First Comments On US Imports of Italian Wines in 2005
Staff Writer - February 15, 2006

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Marketing and Markets

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First Comments On US Imports of Italian Wines in 2005Staff Writer - February 15, 2006

ArticleMarketing and Markets

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First Comments On US Imports of Italian Wines in 2005
Staff Writer - February 15, 2006

Article
Marketing and Markets