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51st Vinitaly increased international presence
The 51st edition of international wine trade show Vinitaly attracted record numbers of international buyers and exhibitors.
The three-day event held in Verona attracted 128,000 visitors this year from 142 different countries. ‘Top international buyers’ in attendance increased by 8% from 2016 to 30,200.
The number of international companies exhibiting at the show also increased by 74% from 2016. Overall, a total of 4,270 exhibitors from 30 countries took part, up 4% from 2016.
In addition, Vinitaly featured 400 conferences, seminars and training courses and, together with ‘regional consortia,’ organised over 250 tastings including a celebration of 50 years of Sassicaia.
Wine trade professionals were also joined by politicians: Maurizo Martina, Italian minister for agriculture and Phil Hogan, the European commissioner for agriculture also travelled to Vinitaly along with ministers of agriculture from Malta and Poland and the Russian deputy minister for agriculture.
President of Veronafiere, Maurizio Danese commented, “We symbolically christened Vinitaly 2017 as the ’50+1 edition’ as a way to represent the first effective step in the new course of development looking into the future for the next 50 years. These results reward our move towards a clearer distinction between business occasions in the exhibition centre and the off-show event dedicated to wine lovers in the city centre.
“Vinitaly and the City this year attracted 35,000 wine lovers to the historic centre of Verona and the town of Bardolino. The goal now is to continue in this direction, on the strength of the new tools made available following the transformation of Veronafiere into a joint-stock equity company backed up by a business plan totalling 100 million euros, with targeted investments in the wine value chain and digital transformation”.
Giovanni Mantovani, CEO of Veronafiere added, “Facts and figures for this edition testify to the growth of Vinitaly’s b2b role on an international scale, with increasingly qualified buyers arriving from all over the world.
“A glimpse at the top ten for international operators highlights increases in attendance by almost all countries: United States (+6%), Germany (+3%), United Kingdom (+4%), China (+12%), France and Canada (stable), Russia (+42%), Japan (+2%), Northern Europe (+2%), the Netherlands and Belgium (+6%). This list is joined by the fine performance by Brazil (+29%), not to mention debuts at Vinitaly by Panama and Senegal. As for Italy itself, we saw consolidation of attendance from all regions in the country”.
Vinitaly also witnessed the confirmation of a significant deal with China as 1919, a major Chinese wine and spirits distribution company, signed an agreement with the Vinitaly International Academy and founder Robert Yang, promising to increase Italian wine sales in China to more than 2 million bottles by 2020.
The 52nd edition of Vinitaly will take place 15-18 April 2018.