Federvini: “A 20.5 billion euro supply chain, but more modern and adequate community tools are needed”

In view of the appointment with Vinitalyscheduled from 14 to 17 April in Verona, Federvini takes stock of the situation of the sectors Italian wines, spirits and vinegars. Over 2,300 companies (38 thousand also considering agricultural processing ones), 21.5 billion euros of direct turnover, 10 billion euros of exports: these are some of the values ​​that emerge from the Supply Chain Study carried out by Nomisma and presented at the Chamber of Deputies. Equally significant are the values ​​from an employment perspective: compared to 81 thousand workers directly employed by companies in the three sectors, thanks to a multiplier effect of 5.8, over 460 thousand are activated in the entire national economic system which corresponds to almost 2% of the total number of workers in Italy.

“The producers of wines, spirits and vinegars express a heritage of culture, history, economy and work which produces well-being for local communities and which, by investing in innovation, sustainability and research, contributes to the growth of our country and to ensuring that the Italian lifestyle is so appreciated in the world,” he explains Micaela Pallini, president of Federvini. “Companies that are still very exposed to geopolitical, regulatory, commercial and inflationary uncertainties today. The defense of this Made in Italy heritage, with its history, culture and reputation, is a responsibility both of entrepreneurs, with their representative organizations, and of the institutions”.

In terms of exportall three sectors have an important importance, not only with regard to the impact on cross-border sales of food & beverage (19%) but above all for the positive contribution to the agri-food trade balance: 8.4 billion euros of net aggregate trade balance , the highest contribution among Italian Food & Beverage products.

But the geopolitical situation current situation is very worrying: “With the outbreak of war in Ukraine, we had to face the increase in energy costs, inflation, the poor availability of some materials. Now the worsening of the crisis in the Middle East is having important repercussions on the geography of transport, especially in Suez passage, with very serious slowdowns. And this has had repercussions not only for the Europe-Asia route. The costs of containers going in other directions have also increased significantly as a result.”

Just as the impact of the climate change on the viticulture. 2023 was a problematic year, first due to the lack of rainfall, then due to the flood in Emilia Romagna, with the devastating flooding of the territories. The spring was extremely humid, which led to the problem of downy mildew, a fungal agent that attacked the vines at the beginning of summer. “For these causes we have lost a lot of crops and wine in various regions,” continues Pallini. “We need to rethink the agricultural world, and the community tools that are developed for this sector must be modern and implementable. Companies must certainly learn to work more on quality than quantity, that is, from a less intensive perspective. Vines can be planted at higher altitudes. Of course, even on this issue, we cannot invent going to the mountains to make them grow.”

Precisely in terms of recognition and institutional support, the supply chain needs further incentives, not just cheap. “The agricultural world depends entirely on the European Community, where a series of instruments are determined at community level which are then reworked by the individual countries”, explains Pallini again. “What we ask for is a greater simplificationespecially with regards to promotion funds. On this application, our Government’s interpretation did not help obtain the simplification we were asking for. We expected simpler mechanisms, we’ve been asking for them for a long time but it seems they still don’t understand us.” Just as Federvini asks for greater simplification also with regards toadministrative aspect. “Our industries are very regulated. For many years we have been asking for alignment between the various registers that go from the harvest to the cellar, we would like the various systems to speak to each other in an automatic and simpler way, but unfortunately this still does not happen”.

And on the horizon, for the sector, there is also something new that raises some questions, originating from Belgium: a law for the protection of minors which authorizes the country’s Ministry of Health to develop a health warning which must appear in all forms of advertising of alcoholic beverages. “The commitment to protect minors is not under discussion – states Pallini – but this decree is written in an unclear way, and our fear is that it could be misinterpreted and expanded to the point of affecting everyone indiscriminately, with the risk that even a label or typical elements of the presentation of an alcoholic drink may fall within the definition of advertising. What we should work on, rather, is in fact to underline that the harmful part is theabusenot consumption”.

For what concern wine sector, new consumption trends are changing the sales scenario. “There is certainly a difference in trends. Red wine has lost ground, and the consumer, for some years now, has been looking for lighter, easy-to-drink wines. The Prosecco, but also all the other bubbles in general, have shown a notable growth in consumption”. The sector is very good Spirits. Come on liquors Italy has giants that are growing, among them the Campari group, which has expanded and bought foreign companies, effectively consolidating its position as a multinational on a global level. But also the bitters market it’s pulling at the moment. “More internally than abroad, but also outside our borders, very interesting channels are starting to open up,” says Pallini, at the helm of the historic Roman distillery that bears his name and which has been producing Italian liqueurs and distributing Italian spirits since 1875. import. “We also have a great tradition when it comes to distillates, if we think about how many well-known brands of grappa and brandy we have. And let’s not forget the Gin, which saw us as protagonists abroad with some important brands”.

Lastly, also the vinegar supply chaindespite having a smaller market, certainly has a very strong identification which must be protected, in particular with regard to one of our excellences, thebalsamic vinegar: “It is a market that has become very recognized and coveted, and for this reason it needs to be protected. We have undertaken several battles in this regard because other countries were allowed to use the word ‘balsamic’, even though the vinegar they produced was made in an absolutely different way than ours”.