Sharp drop in Italian wine exports to the US in April

As was widely announced, there was a sharp drop in Italian wine exports to the United States in April, the month of 'Liberation Day', when President Trump launched his tariffs offensive. Butthe problems of Italian wine go beyond US tariffs. This is what the Italian Wine Union claims, which with its Wine Observatory has analysed data on exports to non-European markets for the first four months of the year.

"In April," they explain to the Observatory, "Italian wine exports to the United States declined by 7.5% in volume and 9.2% in value (to almost 154 million euros), with a average price decline of 2%. It should be remembered that in April the Trump administration's tariffs were 20% from 2 to 8 April while they were reduced to 10% thereafter'.

At the same time, the fall in April brought the quarterly shipments to the US down to the waterline (+0.9% in volume) after the exploit of the last six months characterised by the pre-tariffs rush of US importers aiming to strengthen inventories.

During the period," they add at the UIV Observatory, "the performance in terms of value also halved (+6.7%, Euro 666 million: just a month earlier the balance was +12.5%). A collapse that was announced and that makes the overall situation in non-EU markets even more problematic: -9% in volumes and -2.4% in values..

"For some time now," commented the president of the Italian Wine Union, Lamberto Frescobaldi, "we have been insisting on looking at actual consumption and not only at shipping figures, which are only now coming into line after the evident stock-outs. UIV believes that we must address with extreme urgency, and this will be the key theme of the next national assembly on 3 July, the increasingly evident market imbalances, also in view of the next harvest".