Italian wine production will fall by 12% this year to below 44 million hectoliters. Thus, for the first time in 9 years, it will regain the first place as the world’s largest wine producer.
This was stated by the Italian wine lobbies UIV and Assoenologi, as noted by Reuters.
Extreme weather conditions and fungal diseases seriously affected the vineyards.
Northern Italian regions should register a slight increase in output of 0.8%. This was announced by lobbyists in a joint statement with the ISMEA Institute of Food and Agriculture.
However, with the harvest forecast, production is expected to fall by about 20% in the central regions and by about 30% in the south. Among the reasons, a combination of bad weather conditions and the influence of a fungus called plasmopara viticola is noted.
“The harvest we are facing is very difficult, characterized above all by the consequences of climate change, which in late spring and early summer caused pathogenic diseases, as well as floods, hail and drought,” said Riccardo Cottarella, head of the association. expert winemakers of Assoenologi.
However, he predicts the following: the quality of the wine will not be compromised.
“The problem is not so much Italy’s loss of leadership in terms of production volumes, but the slowdown in domestic and foreign demand, which leads to lower prices,” said ISMEA Extraordinary Commissioner Livio Proetti.
