In recent years, the Italian bulk market has changed considerably in terms of purchase timing, prices and final destination markets. Italian bulk wine is no longer moving simply from the south to the north, or to the traditional European markets. Today, markets are connected and what happens in this single ‘unknown market’ (as I like to call it), determines the movement of the entire chain, to the final price of the bottle on the supermarket shelf.

However, there are now two well-defined, distinct bulk markets in Italy. The first one is the commodities market for entry-level red, white and rosé bulk wine, where Italian players must fight it out against the other big wine producers, such as Spain, South Africa, Chile, Argentina and the eastern European countries. The second market belongs to the IGT/IGP, DOC/DOP and DOCG wines, where the individual wines have different values and where success is to be found in the export markets, given that domestic Italian consumption is steady. The gap between these two markets is remarkable, particularly in terms of price and profitability.

International snapshot-

In the 2015 harvest, Italy produced about 49 ml. hectoliters while Spain reported a smaller crop of about 41 ml., which is smaller than in the previous two years, while France produced around 47 ml.

According to figures available at the time of writing, the world will have produced almost 276 ml. of wine in 2015, an increase of approximately 2% over 2014. World consumption is around 270 ml. hl. (including the material needed for juices, concentrates, distillation and the food sector), giving a surplus of about 6m hl. This isn’t a great deal, so we can confirm that the world is almost in balance.

Image Courtesy and full article can be found at : https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2016/06/a-snapshot-of-italys-bulk-wine/