Italian wine exports slow down!

Italian wine exports slow down: in February, values rise but volumes fall. Russia collapses!

Exports to the US continue, but there wine is getting more expensive, while Germany and the UK are underperforming. Sparkling wine is doing better than average.

Light and shade in Italian wine exports in the first two months of 2025. February closed with a 3.67% increase in sales (to 1.19 billion euros), but with a 1.7% drop in volumes to 316 million liters. After the record 2024 and the good start in January, the volumes shipped across the border in the first two months lag behind the same period last year. The average price per liter remains high, around 3.75 euros, according to Gambero Rossoweekly Tre Bicchieri analysis based on Istat data on foreign trade.

Prosecco Cap still decisive

Bottled wine (containers of less than 2 liters) loses 3.3% in quantity but gains 3.67% in value, reaching nearly 800 million euros by February 2025. Wines in packages of more than 2 liters increase in value (+2.6% to 51 million euros) but lose 2.4% in volume (58.7 million liters) from a year ago. Sparkling wines do not seem to suffer from the consumption crisis and reach a value of 322 million euros, up 4.57% year-on-year and growing in volume: +3.3% to 74.6 million liters, of which 56.5 million Prosecco DOP (+7.3%) for sales of nearly 250 million euros (+7.5%). Asti spumante DOP recorded a minus (-8.5% in value and -5.4% in volume), while the other Italian DOP sparkling wines (the group that includes Trento Doc, Alta Langa and Franciacorta, among others) showed an increase of 1.5%, but also a significant drop in volume (-17%). A double-digit drop in volume for spumanti with IGP (-33%), but with stable sales of 2.3 million euros.

Markets: ok for the US and Canada

United States continue to buy Italian wine also in the first two months of 2025, following a trend already established last year and reinforced by a stock effect due to the import tariffs announced in the fall (25% with a 200% threat) and then applied in the spring by President Donald Trump (10% extra). Italy shipped 57.8 million liters of wine in two months, up 8.2% from a year ago, while the value jumped sharply: from 278 to 335 million euros, up +20%. About 237 million euros concerned products bottled in containers of less than two liters. The average export price of Italian wine in the United States is 5.8 euros per liter. Prosecco Dop alone records a 40% increase in value and 37% in volume.

But Italian wine is also much more expensive in Canada, where volumes have increased by 1.5% and value by 15 percentage points to 62.3 million euros.

Conflicting results for Germany and the United Kingdom

Wine exports from Italy to Old Continent markets are down for the two main buyers of Italian products: Germany (-2%) and the United Kingdom (-1%), but also for Sweden (-2%) and Austria (-2%). In the first two months of 2025, however, there is an increase for Switzerland (+2.9%), Belgium (+2.8%) and Poland (+8%) and the situation remains stable for France and the Netherlands. The overall picture looks better if we look at the values: Germany +2.3%, but the United Kingdom remains negative at -1.45% in the first two months, with 107 million euros of wine. Exports to France and the Netherlands (+1%), Belgium and Sweden (+2%), Switzerland (+1.5%) and Poland (+10%) were positive. Austria (-6.6%) performed poorly.

The collapse of Russia

The analysis of Istat data also shows that the Russian market started a clear stop in February 2025. Indeed, exports of Italian wine to the former Soviet market, which had the best performance among buyers of Made in Italy wine in 2024, amounted to 20 million euros, compared to 47 million in the first two months of 2024. The decline is 57 percent. Thus, the trend of last January continues. In terms of quantities, shipments have dropped from nearly 16 million liters of wine a year ago to 5.1 million liters, down 68 percent.

Of the other reference markets, Mexico in South America recorded a 40 percent decline in volume and 25 percent in value, while Brazil showed a 33 percent increase in volume and 30 percent in value. In Eastern Europe, the sales of Italian wine do not shine: to China, it falls by 26%, in South Korea there is a slight decrease (-1%) and also in Japan the results are negative, with a 7% decrease in the first two months of 2025.

Source: Gambero Rosso - publication May 20, 2025