Wine, pasta and olive oil: Italy exports like never before

"More Italian food on tables around the world. The effect of the pandemic, in the two years between 2020 and 2021, allowed Italian-made agri-food products to increase their market share better than many commercial competitors did." This is according to a report from... Red shrimp.

The magazine calculates that the world chose during the pandemic the Made in Italy as a quality product. 

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With sales at home 7 billion euros, wine was the flagship of these purchases, but the pasta, the cheeses, salami and extra virgin olive oil also showed very impressive results abroad.

Second, Denis Pantini, agri-food manager at Nomisma, an Italian economic research and consultancy company, 2021 will be remembered as “an extraordinary year for Italian exports”.

“The growth involved several products that are not commodities, bringing gains to Italy in many world markets”, he stated.

Published figures show that in 2015 agri-food exports earned just over 30 billion euros.

This number jumped to more than 50 billion euros in 2021, with growth of 11% compared to 2020 and 15% compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic year.

Italian wines occupy a prominent place in these numbers, being the driving force of exports, with a share of 14% in volume and an increase of 12,7% in value compared to 2020.

Reflections of the war between Ukraine and Russia

The authorities, however, are apprehensive about the year 2022 due to the increase in production costs (energy, inputs, etc.) which will affect price competitiveness and also the war between Ukraine and Russia.

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MEP Paolo de Castro, who chairs Nomisma's Scientific Committee, told Gambero Rosso: “Sanctions on Russia's agri-food sector will generate direct (such as export) and indirect difficulties, as several countries that have been unable to enter Russia will target the European Union”.

In any case, now with the war in Ukraine, devastating consequences are expected for everyone, especially as the conflict occurs after two years of a global pandemic, which has already tested the resilience and the economies of all countries.