Mar. 1 – The Italian wine market in Canada continues to grow, as the latter becomes more and more “wine-loving nation” and increases its wine imports, especially for red wines (data Canadian Vintners Association). In particular, with 368 million liters consumed – of which 28% of local production – as much as 15% is imported from Italy and only 13% from France, whose import costs are higher than the average 4.6% cost. The Grandi Marchi Institute, a conglomerate of the top 19 brands of Italian wine, is organizing, with the organizational support of the IEM (private company for the promotion of Italian wine on international markets), a double tour of Toronto and Montreal on March 4-8. The aim is to promote Italian wine by taking advantage of the strong relationships with the two major Canadian monopolies (LCBO for Ontario and Saq for Quebec), with which the Institute is committed in terms of training technicians and government officials. “The market – said Piero Antinori, president of Grandi Marchi – looks good and still has significant room for development, thanks to a qualitative evolution that translates into rising consumption of red wines – from 50% in 2002 to 63% in 2012. The first export data from January to August 2012 saw our country grow, as the first provider in terms of quantity (49 million liters, up 15.5% from 2011) and second only to France in terms of value. France, however, is gradually losing market shares, going from 35% in 2001 to 23% in 2011.” In particular, the province of Quebec has the highest wine consumption per capita, absorbing 41% of the wine imported from Italy. However, in Ontario Italy also ranks first among the supplying countries with a 23% of market share of imports.
