Italy wine sector uncorks new strategies with China push

ROME — The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way Italian wine is sold, and analysts say it is unlikely to go back to the way it was once the virus is less of a threat.

Restaurants and bars — normally the top domestic market for Italian wine — have either been shuttered or been open for business for a dramatically limited period for most of the last year, starting when Italy became the first European country to declare a national coronavirus lockdown.

Blocked from spending evenings out, Italians turned to direct sales. Exports, already a priority for the Italian wine industry before the pandemic, have taken on a new importance, analysts said.

“The industry has been hurt by the closure of restaurants and bars and we don’t expect things to get back to normal until at least late 2022,” said Paolo Castelletti, secretary-general of the Italian Wine Union, a key industry group. “Wine sellers and distributors have had to adapt.”

According to research from the Nomisma Wine Monitor Observatory, the number of Italians buying wine from online retailers has grown by at least 10 percent over the past year, with the average cost per order growing as well. Added to that are rising sales for direct in-person sales.

“Online sales have seen a dramatic increase, especially for those retailers that advertise or that already had a significant presence before the pandemic,” Enrico Sabino, an independent consultant who works with online retailers specializing in wine and food, said in an interview.

Sabino said the increase is not nearly enough to compensate for the drop in sales to restaurants and bars, though at least some of those retailers have switched to online sales in recent months.

Francesca Filippone, managing director of L3, a business development consultancy specializing in

the food and wine sectors, said the pandemic has only sped up the growth of interest in export markets, particularly to fast-growing markets in Asia.

Asian markets attractive

“Markets in Europe and the United States are almost fully developed, but there is room for strong growth in the Asian markets,” Filippone said.

She said the fact that China’s economic recovery from the pandemic added to the growing popularity for Italian wine in the country has made it a particularly interesting export market for Italian wine producers.

Filippone said the upcoming Vinitaly China Chengdu promotion will be a popular event for Italian wine industry players looking to make up for lost time in the Chinese market.

Castelletti, Sabino, and Filippone all said some aspects of the new sales strategies for Italian wines will last beyond the pandemic, whether it is the habit of Italian consumers to buy more wine directly for the home or for retailers to focus more on exports.

“I think that when restaurants and bars reopen there will be a huge, pent-up demand,” Castelletti said.

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid any tensions to rest on Wednesday by finally holding their first phone call since the change of administration in Washington.

Netanyahu was one of the last foreign leaders to get a call from Biden, who took office on Jan 20, despite Israel’s special relationship with the United States.

Both sides stressed their close ties during the call, which Biden told reporters was a “good conversation”.

The White House said Biden registered “support” for a series of agreements brokered by his predecessor Donald Trump on normalizing relations between Israel and Arab countries.

Biden “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the US-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation”, a White House statement said.

In their own statement, Netanyahu’s media adviser called the talk “very warm and friendly” and lasting about an hour.

“The two leaders noted their long-standing personal connection” and agreed to strengthen the countries’ alliance, the statement added.

The Israeli prime minister and the US president “discussed the future advancement of the peace accords, the Iranian threat and regional challenges, and agreed to continue their dialogue”.

Placing Netanyahu far down on the list for calls was widely interpreted as Biden’s way of signaling a reset in US-Middle East relations following the Trump era.

The Republican often boasted of being what he called the most “proIsrael” president in US history. He closely followed Netanyahu’s priorities, including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a move seen as provocative by many other countries.

The perception of a cold shoulder irked Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

‘Snubbing’ ally

Danny Danon, head of Likud’s global wing, recently tweeted a list of Biden’s conversations with leaders and asked: “Might it now be time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally of the US?”

Nikki Haley, Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations, accused the Biden administration of “snubbing” Israel.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that Netanyahu was not being ignored, but indicated that he was not exactly on the front burner.

“Let me confirm for you that his first call with a leader in the region will be Prime Minister Netanyahu,” she said. “I don’t have an exact date for you but it is soon.”

Despite the back-to-normal nature of the phone call, Biden’s Middle East agenda is already taking a sharp turn from the one that made Trump so popular with Netanyahu.

Crucially, Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers to keep Teheran’s nuclear industry under close monitoring in exchange for relaxing crippling sanctions on the country.

This pleased Israel, which insists that Iran is working toward a nuclear weapon — a claim denied by Iran.

Biden has said he wants to return to the deal in some form, calling Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran a failure.