If Vinexpo Paris & Wine Paris continues its growth trajectory as anticipated, it could emerge as the premier international wine fair, challenging the dominance of ProWein in Düsseldorf, which has held that position in recent years.
Despite a somewhat subdued 2023 edition, ProWein remains pivotal for the German market—a crucial hub for Italy and beyond—and a key meeting point for Northern and Eastern European markets.
From March 10 to 12, 2024, the German fair will host more than 1,190 registered exhibitors from Italy, maintaining its position as the largest contingent, albeit with fewer exhibitors compared to previous editions. Following Italy are France (743 exhibitors) and Germany (708 exhibitors), with numerous other countries represented from across the globe—from Argentina to Armenia, Bolivia to Brazil, China to India, Israel to Japan, Panama to Slovakia, the United States to Turkey, the United Kingdom to Venezuela, and beyond.
Italian wines, which continue to lead both in volume and value among imports into Germany, generated EUR 1.1 billion for Italian wineries in the first 11 months of 2023, reflecting a 3.7% increase over 2022, according to Istat data analyzed by WineNews.
Italy’s wine industry, prominently featured once again at ProWein 2024, despite some reductions in collective representations and smaller company participation, will showcase major industry trends. These include the impacts of climate change, the rise of Piwi vines in Germany, generational shifts, and the growing integration of technology and artificial intelligence in winemaking.
The event will also feature numerous masterclasses focused on Italian wines, often led by the Ice Agency and German publications such as Weinwirtschaft, Vinum, Der Feinschmecker, Falstaff, and others. Discussions will highlight denominations and territories such as Chianti Classico, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Garda Doc, Franciacorta, Custoza, Valpolicella, Lugana, Doc Venezia, Chianti, Puglia, Morellino di Scansano, Oltrepò Pavese, Asolo Prosecco, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Prosecco, Valtenesi, Campania, Montefalco, Vesuvio, Lambrusco, and Vini Mantovani, Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, among others.
Representations of Italian wine that, therefore, from Prowein 2024, is looking, with particular attention, at the German market which, as the statistical report of "DeutscherWein.de", relating in truth to 2022, tells us, has not passed unscathed the scrutiny of the difficult economic conditions that all countries in the world have gone through in recent years. In particular, the report points out, in a historically price-sensitive market like Germany, imported wines, which move through distribution at an average price of 3.6 euros per liter, saw a -7% drop in volume and -5% in value, while domestic wines (in 2022, Germany produced 9 million hectoliters of wine, compared to an import of more than 13 million hectoliters, ed.), which cost more, or, on average, 4.18 euros per liter, suffered volume losses of -14%, and value sales declines of -8%. As a result, the market share of German wines, in terms of volume of wine purchased, fell by one percentage point to 44%.
Looking at the numbers in more detail, Germany imported 6.02 million hectoliters of still white wine in 2022 (-8.9% over 2021), mostly generic or entry level, for EUR 721mn (+1.4%), with a price of EUR 120 per hectoliter, while still reds stopped at 5.8 million hectoliters (-5.5%) for EUR 1.29bn (-7.8%) at an average price of EUR 220 per hectoliter.
Sparkling wines as a whole moved imports of 677,000 hectoliters (-6.6%) for EUR 471mn (+5.7%), with half of the value represented by Champagne, which made EUR 242mn (+13.7%) with 95,000 hectoliters (+2.3%) at an average price of EUR 2.555 per hectolitre, while other imported sparkling wines put together EUR 156mn (+9.1%) for 426,000 hectoliters (-3.5%) and an average price of EUR 366 per hectolitre (the rest being sparkling wines). For a total import of all types of wine, therefore, of 13.3 million hectoliters (-6.8) for EUR 2.6bn (-2%).
Italy has steadily, for years, been the leader among important wines. Having said the growth in 2023 (waiting, in a few days, for the final Istat data), in 2022, wines worth EUR 1.02bn (-6.4% on 2021) and 4.8 million hectoliters (-7%) arrived from Italy, with an average price of EUR 201 per hectoliter. With Italy ahead of France (EUR 882mn, stable on 2021, for 1.7 million hectoliters, at -15.3% as, but with an average price of EUR 462 per hectoliter), and Spain (3.6 million hectoliters, -6.4%, for EUR 348mn, +1.9%, and a price of EUR 95 per hectoliter).
Looking at Germans’ wine buying and drinking behavior, wine holds a share of the alcoholic beverages market in Germany around 21.9% for still wines, joined by 9.9% for sparkling wines, with beer dominating with 36%, and spirits at 29% of the spirits market share, while other alcoholic beverages are worth 4.3%. Wine consumption, in 2022, stood at 19.9 liters per capita, for the first time below 20 liters per head since 2015 (the peak being 21.1 liters in 2016), while beer is at 120.1 liters per capita per year (again below the average since 2015, when consumption was as high as 132.5 liters per head).
Looking at consumption trends, when looking at overall wine consumption the propensity to buy German wines is steadily around 44-45% in volume and 47% in value between 2019 and 2022, with Italy the second favorite country with 17-18% in both volume and value. The breakdown by type is curious: when they turn to domestic wine, Germans more than 58% of the time consume white wine, then red (30.3%) and finally rosé (11.1%), while among foreign wines, reds (46.9%) are more popular than whites (40.5%), with rosé in the rear (12.6%). Among wine sales channels, discount stores (38%) and supermarkets (28%) make up the bulk of the total, while the third channel preferred by consumers (with 9%) is direct sales at wineries. The rest is divided, more or less equally, between specialty stores and wine stores, physical and online.
Numbers and trends to take into account, in order to understand how the German market moves, how it changes and how it evolves, which, after the North American market (and of course the "domestic" one), is the most important one for the wineries of Italy.
Source: WineNews