Wine companies to the government: good promotion actions but the surplus remains

"We are in the most extraordinary showcase of one of the most incredible expressions of Made in Italy. A sector that continues to give us enormous satisfaction with its 14 billion a year turnover. A sector that, in a very complex general situation, needs to be supported. In the last excise decree we provided for a tax credit for agricultural diesel. But I also expect the wine world, aware of the extraordinary nature of what it represents, to prove stronger than all the difficulties. The Government recognises its strength, value and commitment and walks alongside the sector with all the tools at its disposal."
It is a message of closeness and solidarity that President of the Council of Ministers Giorgia Meloni brought to the sector yesterday during her official visit to Vinitaly in Verona.

Days during which tension was clearly perceived due to international uncertainties on the part of a production world strongly projected onto foreign markets. Difficulties on the air transport front has already limited the arrivals of foreign visitors at the fair and is worrying, in no small measure, Italian vigneros used to dozens of missions abroad a year. "I have a plane to the USA immediately after Vinitaly," said Amarone producer Sabrina Tedeschi, "I will leave without having any certainty of what I will be able to do when I return to Italia.

With a view to re-launching the sector, yesterday Vinitaly hosted the Table of the Production Chain where the results of the institutional wine promotion campaign launched by the Ministry of Agriculture were illustrated. "A campaign," commented Vice-President of Federvini and coordinator of the Production Chain Table, Piero Mastroberardino, "that has achieved excellent results. We are satisfied that, as announced by Minister Lollobrigida, the campaign will now have a second phase'.

But the nodes of the sector were also discussed at the table. "The simplifications introduced on the funds for promotion are good," commented Coldiretti and Filiera Italia, "but it is now necessary to strengthen support with measures capable of accompanying companies in a complex phase. "On the promotion front," added the president of Cia-Agricoltori Italiani, Cristiano Fini, "we need dedicated campaigns to open new markets and a structural support for wine tourism, which contributes to the development of rural areas.

Among the knots is also that of excess production. According to data from Cantina Italia in Italia, as of 31 March there were stocks of 55.9 million hectolitres of wine, a value higher than the production of an entire grape harvest.
"The production surpluses," commented the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti, "do not only concern Italia and must be tackled with anti-crisis measures from the EU, Interventions to be financed without affecting the Ocm funds aimed at supporting the competitiveness of companies.