Good news for Italy’s wine sector

For the Italian wine industry, 2010 was a record year, with exports up 9 percent from 2009. Italian wine producers are estimated to have done 3.7 billion euro in business. According to Istat figures on foreign trade, more than two billion bottles of Italian wine were consumed worldwide, the majority in the United States, Italy’s largest export market followed by Germany. In China, a new market, Italy’s wine exports were up 102 per cent over those of 2009. Exports to Russia, which increased by 51 percent, representing 100 million euro, made that country a major trade partner. The industry is optimistic about the 2010 harvest, which yielded 45-47 million hectoliters for the domestic and international markets.