Wine: two new Vinitaly events in Chicago (October) and Belgrade (November)

New partners and stronger impact of Italian wine on the international scene

(Verona – Italy, October 2, 2023) A busy autumn for the internationalization of Vinitaly and Italian wine, with two new trade shows planned. Things kick off in the United States, with the International Wine Expo (IWE) in Chicago on October 22-23. This is the start of a collaboration between the Chicago Chamber of Commerce, Italian Expo and Vinitaly. Next comes Serbia (Wine Vision by Open Balkan, in Belgrade from November 16 to 19) with Veronefiere directly involved in the organization of the “Italy Area”. The commercial perspective of both events is also supported thanks to the partnership with ICE – Italian Trade and Investment Agency in the selection of a large contingent of buyers.

Chicago will host around 200 Italian companies (more than 1,000 labels) from across the country, connecting with 350 qualified market operators – starting with the hospitality sector – mainly coming from the Midwest, a region of more than 70 million people. inhabitants (including 2.6 million inhabitants). million Italians) with an annual consumption of nearly 800 million bottles of wine. The tasting program involving 68 labels also includes Decanter Magazine’s masterclass with the six best Italian wines from the World Wine Awards 2023. “IWE is our first trade fair in the world’s top consuming country,” said the Verona president, Federico Bricolo. The quality and scale of the innovation developed over the years by our partners have convinced us that this new alliance could prove to be strategic for Vinitaly from the outset. The potential to create a benchmark for Italian wine in a business center of such great interest is considerable.

Wine Vision’s Italian zone in Belgrade covers a market that extends from the Balkans to the whole of Eastern Europe and Austria. “Thanks to the institutional agreements with the governments of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania that established the Balkan Open Economic Zone,” commented Maurizio Danese, Managing Director of Veronafiere, “Vinitaly, together with ICE Trade Agency, becomes the commercial player in Italian wine on the main market. wine fair in South-Eastern Europe. The aim is to strengthen a B2b approach involving demand in a macro-region which, even in a difficult year like this, still shows double-digit growth. During the first 6 months of this year, according to the UIV-Vinitaly Observatory, the trend of growth in sales of Italian wines in the 16 countries concerned (Albania, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Turkey) amounted to 16.5%, for a value of 243 million euros in the first half of the year. This result goes against the overall performance trend of the sector in the first half (-0.4%) and confirms Italian leadership in the field considered.

www.internationalwinexpo.com/; www.fair.openbalkan.com/