Vinitaly: for 2024 unified promotion in 15 countries and 3 continents

Foreseeing the evolution of markets and sharing a shared promotion strategy on international marketplaces by making resources efficient with a view to positioning and new business opportunities in a geopolitical and economic context that spares no challenges and uncertainties. This is Vinitaly's call to institutions and wine companies at the opening of wine2ine, the networking event of the International Italian Wine Show scheduled at Veronafiere until tomorrow, Nov. 13.

A guideline, that of unity of purpose, emerged during the opening session on "Export Maps. Vinitaly's activity in favor of the internationalization of Italian wine. Focus USA, Asia and Eastern Europe," which finds foundation in the sector check-up provided today by the head of the Uiv-Vinitaly Wine Observatory, Carlo Flamini, and which still highlights a mobile global scenario. According to the analyst, the 2023 picture if on the one hand confirms the difficulties of Italian wine predicted at the end of 2022, on the other hand it highlights the need to make a change of pace to get the sector back on track as it grapples with a difficult season. In fact, according to the Observatory's estimates, the year will end with a decline in sales compared to 2022 (-2.9 percent). According to the report, the decrease in operating costs as a result of the partial return of energy and raw materials tensions was not enough to preserve the fundamentals of a sector that, like others, is discounting in particular the doubling of interest rates, but also an increase in the horeca insolvency rate and a drop in the market that is impacting inventory costs. On this front, the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory estimates a less drastic end to the year than budgeted 12 months ago in an assumed scenario of global recession; the drop in volumes sold will be just under 3%, thanks to the resilience of demand in Western Europe (+1%) and in a minority part to the jump in Eastern Europe (+20%). All other macroregions will contract, starting with North America (-14%), Japan and Korea (-23%), the Far East (-20%) and South America (-16%). Overall, the domestic market will give up 3.7 points and exports 2.4 percent.
 
For the president of Veronafiere, Federico Bricolo: "The 2023 market trend presented today confirms the difficulties announced a year ago by our Observatory and validates the path imprinted by the new governance on the event already since last April's edition: that is, a Vinitaly increasingly business-oriented in Verona and, at the same time, at the center of a hub capable of truly aggregating the promotion of Italian wine abroad to give an answer in facts to companies. It goes in this direction, the dialogue and the commitment with all institutions, from ministries to embassies, from chambers of commerce abroad to Ice-Agenzia, to establish a wine 'team Italy' capable of competing in Italy and abroad."

"After the record number of selected buyers present at the last edition of Vinitaly," emphasized Maurizio Danese, CEO of Veronafiere, "we have restarted with a special promotion and incoming program in view of 2024 that contemplates events, roadshows and previews of the event in 15 target countries on 3 continents to outline the evolutionary mapping of markets, consolidated and emerging. A project that, like last year, contemplates major investments aimed at further consolidating the role of the event. A strengthening both in Verona - the crossroads of our international activities - and abroad where, in addition to fairs in China and Brazil, we foresee the birth of Vinitaly USA 2024 in Chicago and another new b2b event in Japan."

Areas of demand, those on which Vinitaly plants made-in-Italy fair flags, consistent with the analysis of its Observatory, which sees, especially in the emerging markets of the Far East, Japan and South Korea and Eastern Europe with penetration indexes still below 50% of potential and with important growth forecasts. Even the top U.S. buyer, according to the report, still has a wine penetration index at 60 percent and a curve that, beyond the economic situation, is expected to rise in the medium to long term.

This is why the recipe of the trade fair spa, contemplated in the next Strategic Plan 2024-2026, is to increasingly strengthen Vinitaly's business vehicle, also in collaboration with Ice Agenzia, in favor of a sector whose promotional activities are historically fragmented into a thousand initiatives. "Exporting is fundamental," commented Lorenzo Galanti, director general of Ice Agenzia, "and we must do it by taking Italian wine abroad as Italian; it is a guise that is good for everyone. In this sense inflating events is counterproductive. Working with Vinitaly is fundamental because it helps us rationalize and systematize initiatives. Today we are particularly focused on increasing the quality of buyers to ensure matching that allows us to optimize b2b meetings in favor of the positioning of Italian wine in the world." 

UPCOMING VINITALY AND EVENTS ABROAD
For the next Vinitaly (April 14-17, 2024), among the objectives of Veronafiere's top management stands out the increasingly international traction of buyers and the consequent renewal of the record relative to the rate of foreign operators present, achieved in the last edition (31.8%), but also the greater impact from qualified national demand. Also proceeding is the qualitative-quantitative selection of foreign demand, also through Previews, i.e., Vinitaly promotion events in a "buyer hunter" key, launched in Lugano at the end of October, with a world tour (until next March) in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Uk. At the same time, fairs and b2b appointments in the international arena are planned. After Vinitaly-Iwe in Chicago last October, it starts again on November 16 with Vinitaly Wine Vision by Open Balkan, with the Italy Area curated by the trade fair brand and Ice, to continue in March with the Vinitaly USA Roadshow in Houston and New York (March 4-7) and Vinitaly China in Chengdu (March 17-19).
After Vinitaly in Verona (April 14-17), the 2024 calendar of Veronafiere's signature international promotion of Italian wine runs again in Shenzen with Wine to Asia (May 9-11), Vinitaly China Roadshow, Wine South America (Sept. 3-5) and Vinitaly Canada Roadshow (Toronto and Montreal). While Vinitaly USA in Chicago is confirmed from Oct. 12-14.