Market

Despite some initial scepticism – especially among Italy’s mass media – Expo Milano 2015 proved to be a great success. A success according to the public, which was both numerous and greatly participative. Successful in its choice of theme: ‘Feed the Planet, Energy for Life’, a topical theme of widespread interest. And finally, success guaranteed by the quality of the organisation, which turned out better than that of previous decades. But besides all this – three years on, what is left of the Expo 2015 Milan legacy?

Not just fashion and design, today Milan is more than ever the international capital of food. For countless reasons. We list a few of them below.

• Thanks to an architectural make-over of entire districts of the city, a number of new restaurants were launched. According to the Chamber of Commerce, after Expo the number of restaurants in the Milan-Monza-Lodi district increased by 1,482, bringing the overall number of eateries in the area to over 22,000, representing a turnover of 2.6 billion, equal to 14.7% of Italy overall.

• Every year in May the city hosts Milano Food City, a week of events, talks and tastings dedicated to food and Seeds and Chips, the international food innovation summit.

• Milan is the best-known and most popular branch of the Italian haute cuisine convention, Identità Golose, and is also home to TuttoFood, an unmissable date for employees and workers.

• With its 24 Michelin stars, Milan is Italy’s most starred city for 2018. Michelin-addicts can choose between four two-star restaurants and 16 one-star restaurants.

• Milan is home to Gualtiero Marchesi’s Academy of Cuisine; the institution was named after a legendary chef.

• You can sample dishes from all over the world in Milan: Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and Indian, but also Russian, Greek, Northern European and South American.

• After Expo, food delivery services multiplied greatly Foodora, Just Eat, Uber Eats, Bacchetteforchette and Deliveroo), delivering all kinds of dishes to anywhere in the city.

• The new metropolitan markets often rise from the ashes of the old ones: born over the past few years today they are an obligatory stop for citizens and tourists, selling food where you can eat as you buy.

• Milan’s food trucks have evolved into a gourmet version: with a wide range on offer which is surprisingly similar to haute cuisine.

Today there is no doubt that the gourmet food and wine sector is one of Milan’s boasting points – in 2017 the city played host to nine million tourists, 10.3% more than the previous year. By tourist numbers alone, over the past few years Milan – the 14th most visited city in the world – has regularly ranked higher than Rome, a capital city of inestimable cultural, artistic and historical legacy.

Italian wine in numbers
In 2017, Italy exported a total of 1,644 million Euros worth of wine, an increase of 1.44%. It has to be said that the French cashed in a bit more (1,649 million), but we beat them by quantity: Italy exports 3.3 million hectolitres while the French merely reach a total of 1.6 million, putting them behind Australia (1.9 million). In the first two months of 2018, Italy roared ahead in value: 243 million Euro ended up in the country’s coffers, while the French had to make do with 227 million. Why? Mainly thanks to Prosecco.

The rising success of the bubbles
The growing success of Italian wines is largely due to its bubbles, at least if we consider Nomisma’s “Wine Monitor” research which, in 2017, marked a very impressive trend in sparkling wines. Just think that Italy contributes 23% of the world’s export in sparkling wines, a percentage that just ten years ago was less than half (10%). The explosion of bubbles is thanks to the Prosecco phenomenon which, over the last five years, has grown by 117.5%. In fact, Prosecco has paved the way for all Italian bubbles, showing the more mature markets such as the USA and the UK that there is more to this product that champagne, and that you can enjoy a good sparkly without spending an arm and a leg.
But as well as sparkling wines, the entire white wine industry has grown and conquered: in fact, according to the Wine Monitor, Italy is the world leader in the export of white wines, beating the French, Spanish and the Australians. Italian biodiversity is paying off: the most important global markets have tired of sipping Chardonnay and Sauvignon, variety is the spice of life and interest has been sparked for the lands behind a successful wine. Something that seemed almost impossible a few years ago when the Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans were seen as the future conquerors of the white wine market.

The main players of the market
At the turning point of 2017, the list of Italian wine-producers gained two positions with a turnover of more than 100 million Euro. Two leading brands entered the prestigious Over 100 Club with an above average growth: the Mondodelvino Group, a young business based in Forlì which ranked 17th with a turnover of 106.84 million and Ruffino, the Italian branch of the American company Constellation Brands which entered number 18 with a turnover of 106.83 million Euro. Bringing the market’s “big brands” to a total of 19, two more than the year before and five more compared to 2015.

Together, these 19 big players represent a turnover of more than 3.3 billion Euro, with exports exceeding 2.3 billion and a production of more than 1.2 billion bottles.

Production down 25%
When it comes to the weather, 2017 was a strange year: the spring frosts were followed by a hot summer and drought. The sudden changes in climate hit Italian vineyards and the resulting harvests very hard. According to Assoenologi (the Italian association of oenologists and oenological technicians), the 2017 harvest was the earliest of the last decade due to the stress placed on vineyards, approximately ten days earlier than usual and one of the poorest in terms of quantity since 1947, with a 25% drop in the production of wine and must. It is estimated that total production was 41 million hectolitres. More specifically, the statistics point to a 40% drop in the harvest in the Lazio region, a 30% drop in Tuscany and Puglia, a 25% drop in Lombardy, a 15% reduction in the Veneto and Friuli regions and a 10% drop in the autonomous region of Trentino Alto Adige. Alongside such a string of negative figures, the only region that increased production was Campania, which bucked the trend with a 5% bigger harvest. According to Coldiretti (the Italian farmers’ association), the yield also went down, i.e. the amount of juice produced by each bunch of grapes. While in the past, each kilo of harvested grapes produced around 0.77 litres of wine, this year’s yield was less than that.

Quality, not quantity
While this year will come to a close with reduced quantities, experts believe that quality will, on the contrary, be better. The lack of water forced vine roots to dig deeper into the soil, an important factor affecting the end product’s quality. When vines do this, they extract the best characteristics from each terroir of origin, reaching the peak of perfection.

Rising prices
According to Assoenologi, DOC and IGT certified wines could become between 10-20% more expensive, increases that will also affect ordinary undesignated wines. A considerable price hike is expected for Franciacorta sparkling wine from Lombardy, which lost almost 50% of the grapes produced compared to last year, due to frost. A bargained increase is also underway for Ribolla Gialla and Sauvignon produced in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. In Tuscany, Merlot and Sangiovese grapes were particularly hard hit, so one can easily imagine higher prices for famous DOC red wines such as Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino. The 40% reduction recorded in the Lazio region is ominous for the price of wines from the Castelli Romani area. In Emilia Romagna, higher prices are expected for Malvasia and Grechetto. In the south, we can expect price hikes for Sicilian Zibibbo and Sardinian Vermentino, among others. In contrast, the prices of wines produced in Piedmont and Veneto have remained stable.