Tariffs effect and weak dollar

Wine exports, no miracle in 2025: -3.7% in value and -1.9% in volume. 170 million lost in the USA

UIV elaborations on Istat data: slump in the second half of the year but market shares are improving compared to France. The exception of Brazil (+3.8%) bodes well for the implementation of the Mercosur agreement

by Giorgio dell'Orefice

La mappa (senza la Francia) per bere bene in Europa

2' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

The much heralded setback in Italia's wine exports has occurred. And it could not have been otherwise with the main foreign outlet market, the United States, burdened by tariffs and an unfavourable euro-dollar exchange rate. Now comes the certification of Istat data. In 2025, Italian wine exports lost 3.7%, stopping at 7.78 billion euro, thus falling below the 8 billion mark recorded last year.

US leads the declines, Europe holds

The turnover of Made in Italy wine abroad lost a total of 300 million, 178 of which in the United States. According to ISTAT data processed by the Italian Wine Union Observatory, while the drop in value was 3.7% volume sales were less marked (-1.9%) this is probably a sign of what many have been rumouring in recent months: that Italian producers, in an attempt to limit the damage in the US, have partly absorbed the tariffs, reducing their profit margins.

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The negative performance in the US (-9.2% to 1.76 billion) dragged down non-EU markets, which lost 6.4% overall. Outside the EU, it was also bad in other key outlets beyond the US. Minus signs also in the UK (-3.9%), Canada (-5.9%), Switzerland (-4.2%) and Russia (-16%). The only exception was Brazil (+3.8%) which bodes well for the EU-Mercosur agreement.

Sparkling wines and top regions are also falling

The European markets fared much better, where an increase of 0.5% was recorded. Holding positions were held by the key market of Germany (+0.6%, to EUR 1.1 billion), while both France (+3.6%) and the Netherlands (+5.6%) rose. Among the regions, negative signs for the three leaders: Veneto at -1.2% (EUR 2.9 billion), Tuscany (-2%) and Piedmont (-2.2%).

On the typology front, the figure for sparkling wines is worrying, which after years of uninterrupted growth left 2.5% on the ground (at EUR 2.3 billion), although they did better than still wines, which lost 4.3% to EUR 5 billion.

"Europe," commentedUIV President Lamberto Frescobaldi, "has calmed the loss and it is precisely from here that we must start again: the domestic market would offer enormous margins for growth if we overcame the legislative bugbear that effectively imposes a 45% domestic tariffs on manufactured goods. The 'wake-up call' generated by tariffs requires us to put our own house in order and at the same time broaden the horizon to third markets, with commercial activism, a managerial approach and strategic sharing with institutions'.

Year-end collapse, France worse than Italia

the difficulties encountered in non-EU countries in the second half of the year are unprecedented," added the Secretary General of the UIV, Paolo Castelletti. "In particular, the US recorded a drop in the period of almost 23% and peaks of -28% for bottled still reds, in addition to a 10.8% drop in the average price. An anomalous market condition that is also reflected in the dynamics experienced by competitors: France, which remains the first supplier with 1.9 billion euro, closed the year with a drop twice as large as ours (-18.8%, -39.1% in the second half). Paradoxically, Italia, losing less than the others, finds itself with higher market shares than last year. A Pyrrhic victory that we would have preferred to achieve through growth'.

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