From 6 to 9 April in Verona the Vinitaly is staged, the most important wine fair of the wine in Europe. And it could not happen in a more delicate moment, in the spotlight of the duties introduced on the American market, the number one for the Italian exporters of wine. But it’s not just the duties. Italian wine entrepreneurs are now targeted by different angles. Also in your own home. And not always to the reason. Of course, alcohol -based products require a control linked to health and dependencies in particular. But at the same time they also represent a food and cultural excellence which in Italy has become a large industry, a supply chain with 240 thousand companies and 1.3 million employed. Linked by double thread, among other things, to the other large tourism industry. Often this aspect is forgotten and wine entrepreneurs are forced to always overcome new obstacles, as happens in the playstation games.
Despite the duties of the duties, the Vinitaly 2025 presents itself complete: for its 57th edition 4 thousand companies are expected, distributed in the 18 pavilions of the event (between fixed and tendostructures). “There are 1,200 top buyers credited and hosted in Verona – said the general manager, Adolfo Rebughini -. A profiled selection from 71 countries, you are more than last year”. And it is significant that among the most numerous delegations of the great non -EU operators the first is that of the USA, with 120 so -called “top buyers”, selected, invited and hosted by Veronafiere and Ice, by Texas, Midwest, California, Florida and New York. Which gives us the idea of a world that does not intend to stop in front of the duties: Italian wine in America is more popular than the French one and owes much of its success also to a quality/price ratio highly esteemed by the consumer. For this reason, it is to be bet that the inventiveness of Italian entrepreneurs will be able to propose solutions to absorb the theme of duties in the commercial relationship with the US sellers. Also in view of the Vinitaly US version, scheduled in Chicago on 5 and 6 October 2025. But the liveliness of our companies will also be projected on the new markets: China in the first place and Southeast Asia, where Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia are growing in wine consumption, typical of the new middle classes.
What matters is precisely this: the ability of Italian companies to react to adversity. Which, in the case of wine, do not only come from bad American, but also from the obtuseness of our Europe, which in recent years has distinguished itself a lot for laces, laces and ideologies, and less in the defense of the interests of businesses. Think, in the case of wine, of the most stringent measures designed in the community field on taxation, introduction of health warnings on labels, limitation of cross -border sales and advertising regulation. Measures to be introduced for the protection of health, but which do not always find shared scientific response. In short, they are imposed from above, a bit like it happened with the Green Deal in the automotive sector.
For this reason, wine companies today need to get rid of bureaucratic constraints and ideological taxes that damage a product that exists in Europe (at least in its more archaic forms) since the glacial era. Without ignoring health risks, of course.
But well aware that the obstacles are not only from the duties for the overseas, but also from the friendly fire. We therefore hope that the risky and useless move of Trump serves to wake up Brussels on industrial policy strategies to be implemented to make many European products – such as wine – stronger and more competitive.