Until Wednesday 17 April Verona is the world capital of wine, with the 56th edition of Vinitaly, the international event dedicated to the entire wine sector, inaugurated this morning after being preceded by the opening of "Vinitaly and the city" ( the off-show dedicated to wine lovers which will close tomorrow in the squares of the city centre) and, yesterday, at Opera Wine, the great preview with the showcase of the 131 best Italian labels selected by Wine Spectator, the most prestigious magazine in the sector. With over 4,000 exhibiting wineries from all Italian regions and 30 foreign countries, more than 30 thousand international operators are expected at the 2024 edition of Vinitaly, including 1200 top buyers from 68 nations, selected and hosted by Veronafiere and Ice Agenzia, as well as to commercial delegations from the main demand countries. "Italian wine is worth more than 8 billion in exports and consumers on the domestic market choose it because it expresses quality, gives safety and well-being - said Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry -. It is represented here at Vinitaly the entire supply chain, from those who produce grapes to the winemakers, the processors and the distributors to give balance and create wealth in this sector which is a symbol of the excellence of Made in Italy”. 'Verdi Auditorium of the Palaexpo, also Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the Council of Ministers and minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Adolfo Urso, minister of Business and Made in Italy, and Gennaro Sangiuliano, minister of Culture of the deputies, Lorenzo Fontana, who opened the institutional interventions. “This edition - reiterated the president of Veronafiere, Federico Bricolo - wants to contribute to shining a further spotlight on Italian wine, which has its global promotion trade fair brand in Vinitaly. ”. And with this promotional logic, Veronafiere has also recently completed a world tour in 18 cities in 15 countries which lasted over a semester to make a thoughtful selection of the main buyers to invite to Vinitaly. A job that is also possible thanks to the collaboration and support of the Italian government, embassies and institutional bodies responsible for promotion, above all Ice Agency. “A system of relationships thanks to which Vinitaly has strengthened its know-how, activating an increasingly close sharing program with players in the sector on a global scale” concluded Bricolo. A consolidated exhibition participation which confirms the centrality of the International Wine and Spirits Exhibition increasingly targeted towards the needs of businesses and the promotion of the sector in Italy and on historical and emerging foreign markets.Veronafiere's new strategic plan "One 2024-2026" also goes in this direction, which contemplates a further strengthening of Vinitaly's mission aimed at amplifying the brand's promotional platform to guarantee, at the same time, investments for incoming on the event and on the product Italian in the most strategic export markets, thanks to an even more widespread rooting of Veronafiere precisely in those areas. AE the president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, underlined that "Veneto still represents the first region in Italy for wine production, with 11 million hectoliters out of a national figure of around 56 million hectoliters, but above all this Veneto of viticulture and oenology covers 36% of national exports, with 2.8 billion euros, the vineyard today is worth around 100 thousand hectares”.
The largest contingent of guests at this edition of Vinitaly remains the United States with over 15% of attendance, followed by 3 other strategic non-EU markets: Canada, China and the United Kingdom, which together account for 23% of arrivals. And on the occasion of the 1st national day of Made in Italy (Monday 15 April) the research "If you take away wine from Italy, a dive into the glass half empty" will be presented together with the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida . A study, carried out by the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory and Prometeia, on the impact that the Bel Paese would suffer in socio-economic, tourist and identity terms from a hypothetical disappearance of wine from Italy.