The Italian wine industry suffers from the crown crisis – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

Italy represents almost a fifth of world wine production, and almost half of Italian wine is sold on the national market. But for two months, restaurants and bars have been closed, and Italians have had to stay home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Furthermore, sales to restaurants and bars in the rest of the world have almost been eradicated.

“People are still buying wine at the store, but they cannot make up for the fact that the restaurant market is almost silent,” says Lodovico Giustiniani, who heads the trade organization Confagricoltura in Veneto.

Even Giustiniani says sales of his own prosecco, Borgoluce, fell 90 percent in March.

Logistics creates problems

Worse yet, prestigious wines like Barolo have left. Almost all of this wine is sold in a restaurant. The Terre del Barolo cooperative is also behind more affordable wine brands like Barbera and Dolcetto, but they cannot make up for the loss of Barolo’s sales. In addition, producers face a logistical challenge, since the wine currently in the cellars is not sold. Then there will also be no place for the wine to be made this fall.

Some producers, including Chianti, have chosen to cut production, which in itself will cause financial problems. Others choose to use their resources to create a type of alcohol that is in greater demand now than ever.

Do you want to make a cheap wine a handshake?

Wine cooperatives in France, Italy and Spain have asked the EU to allocate 350 million euros (3.95 billion euros) for the distillation of low-quality wines, so that it can become a handshake. The Coldiretti agricultural organization has plans to convert 300 million liters of cheap wine into a disinfectant.

In other countries, alcohol producers have switched to producing hand alcohol. Norwegian liquor producer Arcus plans to produce 15-20,000 liters, while in Denmark the football club AGF has given away thousands of liters of beer for this purpose.

This will help producers who make wine with a short shelf life, but Giustanini recalls that it is not possible for more expensive wines, such as Barolo. In other words, such wines can last decades.

Italian restaurants and bars are scheduled to reopen from June 1. It is something that the wine industry expects, but Paolo Boffa, who runs Terre del Barolo, does not believe that the crisis is over for winemakers.

– But as farmers we are used to sacrificing a lot, and we should not give up.

(© NTB)