Vinitaly, the triumph of Made in Italy

For one week in Verona, the major national and international wine producers gather together, but here it is also possible to taste many typical food products from all regions of Italy.

Althought the world economic crisis, confluence has not suffered of this bad period, in three days about 90.000 visitors arrived, this is a clear sign that Vinitaly is definitely a not to miss exhibition. Attendances, in line with the record of last year, have been represented approximately by 35% of sector operators from abroad. A sign of good omen indeed comes from exports, where sales this year have yielded 3.6 billion. In fact, we are all registering good results with regard to the promotion of Italian wines abroad, for example with the project Vinitaly Tour. The foreign markets are increasingly interested in the Italian product.

Moreover, the Italian wine continues to challenge in the Asian markets, especially China, which alone accounts for 60% of Italian wine in Asia. It is estimated that the potential market for wine in China is between 5 and 10% of the population, which means from 60 to 130 million consumers. A huge market, and that prefers the Italian wine of quality.

Many were the important guests of this edition, from the Minister for Agricultural Zaia, and President of the Veneto region, Giancarlo Galan. From politics arrive the invitation to appreciate more the typical products of our cuisine, in this case especially wine, whose sales are suffering a sharp contraction. But if at the restaurant we consume less wine, because of the increasingly restrictive traffic laws, sales directly in the wine cellars are growing fast. In 2008 this type of marketing has increased by 20% over the previous year, reaching a value of 1.2 billion euro. This is an unmistakable sign that the search for the best price has become a priority for all the wine fans. Also the sales of cheap and low quality wine are collapsing, while there is a strong development in the culture of drinking good wine. Italian people drink less but prefer quality and especially national wines.

Many events are also organized within the frame of Vinitaly, as the celebrations for the 150 years of Gaja, the most prestigious wine firm of Piedmont, (an Italy region) and perhaps of the whole Italy, or the various conferences and seminars and the different tasting of wines and typical products from all regions. This year exhibition has been with no doubt with an overview of optimism and good wine, of Italian wine that also rule the roost on most foreign markets, all sector operators focus on high quality Italian wines to fight crisis, and in fact even if Italians’ consumptions are declining, the consumption of wine is still resistant, it is always considered a little luxury to not give up and that is always on our tables.

In fact as much as 49% of Italians knows the contrast effect of resveratrol to cancer (substance present in the grape skin).