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In July 2024, 513,569 hectoliters of Prosecco were bottled, an increase of 12.6 percent compared to June. This is reported by the Consorzio di Tutela Prosecco DOC. This marks only the second time in the history of the consortium that more than 500,000 hectoliters were bottled in a month.
The bottling volume from January to July 2024 totaled 2,832,173 hectoliters, representing an increase of 5.2 percent compared to the same period last year. This indicates an excellent year-end result. Notably, Prosecco DOC Rosé increased by 24 percent, while white Prosecco DOC rose by 3.9 percent. Exports to Germany grew by 17.5 percent in the first quarter of 2024 to 15.2 million bottles. In this context, Spumante was more in demand than Frizzante. Germany is the third largest export market for Prosecco DOC.
The consortium is also launching a project for AI-based authenticity verification of bottles with a virtual assistant. An AI-powered chatbot is set to confirm the authenticity of the product to consumers based on photos of the bottles while providing information on origin, characteristics, and suitable recipe recommendations. For this purpose, the consortium is collaborating with the State Printing Office and Mint, which is responsible for the tax stamps on each Prosecco bottle. The cooperation is a pilot project aimed at improving the protection against counterfeiting of 'Made in Italy' products.
According to a report by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, a Russian importer recently registered a shipment of over 30,000 bottles of so-called 'Prosecco' from Brazil with customs. Due to tariffs on wines from EU states, genuine Prosecco DOC has become too expensive in Russia, but they wish to leverage the good name.
(al / Source: Press release; Wine Industry)