Wine: international promotion of Vinitaly sets off again in the Far-East, visiting Tokyo and Seoul

The Far East is the first destination for Vinitaly Preview 2024, the international promotion programme of the flagship event for Italian wine which today gets underway in Seoul and then in Tokyo (Monday 15/01) to meet more than 100 sector operators and professionals. These two events get things going again for the relay involving in 10 strategic markets as regards international demand for Italian wine which started in October 2023. This international marathon this year, after South Korea and Japan, will also travel to Sweden, Austria, the United Kingdom and Belgium. These initiatives are part of Vinitaly’s broader internationalization plan, which includes exhibitions and roadshows for a total of 19 events in 14 countries.

Seoul, Federico Bricolo, president of Veronafiere

Trade operators in the Korean capital will be greeted by the President of Veronafiere, Federico Bricolo, joined by the Italian Ambassador to Seoul, Emilia Gatto, and Ferdinando Gueli, director of the ICE Trade Agency in Seoul On Monday next, Bricolo will fly on to Tokyo, where he will welcome Japanese stakeholders with Matteo Zoppas, the President of ICE Trade Agency, Gianluigi Benedetti, the Italian Ambassador to Japan, Anna Iele, agricultural expert of the Embassy’s Agro-food Policy Section, and Gianpaolo Bruno, Director of the ICE Trade Agency Office in Tokyo.

“We are starting off again with the format that in recent years has helped us intercept highly qualified international operators, stakeholders and professionals,” said Federico Bricolo, President of Veronafiere, “in a very interesting geographical area for Italian wine where we still have to catch up with our French competitors”. Among the major economic powers in Asia, South Korea has become an increasingly strategic destination, especially for good quality production of all types of wine. Wine imports (benefiting from a significant increase in per capita income) more than doubled between 2019 and 2022, a period when Italian wines posted a leap of 131%, which was only partially offset by the difficult economic context ‘last year. Italy is only the third supplier in South Korea, with a market share of 15% – half that of France.

This dominance is also seen in Japan, where almost 6 out of 10 bottles imported arrive from French and where Italian labels only win the silver medal with a 12% market share. Nonetheless, with imports worth over 200 million euros per year, Japan is historically the main partner for Italian wine in Asia. Sales in Japan country increasingly focus on quality products, and PDO and PGI wines cover more than 80% of imports by (Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory data).