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The Italian agricultural association Coldiretti expects a historic decline in wine exports of around four percent in 2020, according to figures calculated by the Italian statistics agency Istat based on figures for the first five months of the year. While last year's exports rose to a record 6.4 billion euros, from January to the end of May they only reached 2.4 billion euros. The year before, the figure was 2.4 billion euros. This was the first decline in over 30 years.
The most important reason, he said, was brexite: customers in Great Britain had reduced imports by a whopping 12 per cent between January and May 2020. The Chinese market had also slumped by 44 percent. The corona virus had broken out there. The US punitive tariffs on wine from Europe are causing further problems.
The 2020 harvest will also be difficult for the winegrowers: in the meantime they will be short of about 25,000 seasonal workers due to the corona pandemic, explained Coldiretti President Ettore Prandini.
(uka / Photo: Wikipedia)