INSTITUTIONS–VINITALY ALLIANCE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT THE TOKYO STOP OF VERONAFIERE’S GLOBAL ROADSHOW AHEAD OF THE 55TH EDITION OF THE EVENT IN VERONA FROM APRIL 2 TO 5
(Tokyo, February 21, 2023). Accelerate integrated and system-wide promotion to make the promotion of Italian wine in Japan more efficient, avoiding fragmentation and dispersion of resources. This is the unity of intent that emerged today in Tokyo at the penultimate stop of the global Roadshow organized by Veronafiere-Vinitaly in collaboration with Ice Agency and with the joint participation of the main institutional players of our country in the Land of the Rising Sun: the Embassy of Italy in Tokyo, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan and the support of the Italy Japan Foundation, the cultural and relational outpost founded in 1999 by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We are laying the foundations for a medium- and long-term project for the promotion of Italian wine in Japan, with Vinitaly confirming its role as a collective brand on a global scale,” declared the president of Veronafiere, Federico Bricolo, in front of an audience of more than 50 top buyers, wine stakeholders and institutional representatives. “This extraordinary campaign, strongly supported by the new governance of the exhibition company, aims not only to strengthen incoming buyers already from the next 55th edition of Vinitaly, from April 2 to 5, but also to create an effective program of unified promotion in favor of Italian wine.”
For Gianluigi Benedetti, Ambassador of Italy to Japan, while underlining the central role of Veronafiere’s flagship event in enhancing and promoting Italian wine, he reiterated that: “At this moment it is essential to create synergies in a spirit of country system. The presence at this Vinitaly stop of the Embassy, Ice Agency, the Chamber of Commerce together with the Italian exhibition system represented by Veronafiere is clear evidence of the determination to do well and to work together in support of the Italian production fabric.”
Constant presence and system alliances are also the watchwords for Ice Agency, partner of Vinitaly in organizing the extraordinary Roadshow launched over the last two months by Veronafiere in 9 countries across three continents, America, Europe and Asia.
For Erica Di Giovancarlo, director of the Ice Agency office in Tokyo: “We have always been alongside Veronafiere and, in particular, Vinitaly. Japanese operators love Italian wine, love Italy and love Verona. I believe that all Ice initiatives carried out in the wine sector can be done in collaboration with Vinitaly. This would help increase Italy’s strength because only by reasoning as a system can competition be beaten.”
On the data front announced during the presentation of the next Vinitaly, already sold out, the year closed very positively for Italian wine in Japan, with growth in volume of +18.4% in 2022, exactly double compared to total wine imports in the Land of the Rising Sun (+9.2%).
According to the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory, the Italian performance in the 6th largest importing market in the world (in 2021 Tokyo overtook Beijing in the global ranking) is particularly positive both in imports of bottled still wines – especially reds – which closed at 165 million euros (+25%) and for sparkling wines, at +26% (44 million euros in value). Total imports of Italian wine in Japan thus closed 2022 with an overall value of 278 million euros, in 2nd place among supplier countries behind France, which alone exceeds the threshold of 1 billion euros in orders from the Land of the Rising Sun.
“Italy is the second exporter of wine in the world but this primacy is not confirmed in Asia, where other countries manage to sell larger quantities, despite a variety and a quality-price ratio generally lower than that of Italian wines,” commented the president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan, Rosario Pedicini. “Italian producers are often too small to approach complex markets such as Asian ones on their own and the Italy system, of which the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan is an active part, stands alongside producers to improve positioning in Japan.”
The Vinitaly-branded Roadshow will close the day after tomorrow, February 23, in South Korea.
Carolina Cheli
