Unfortunately, for weeks the strong increases in electricity and gas prices that have been taking place in Italy, linked to the increases and the lack of raw materials, have been bringing extra costs of a total of over one billion euros in the Italian wine production sector, many Italian wineries, especially those that produce “entry level” wines, to face strong and real risks especially on foreign markets, the international ones.
Unfortunately, every single cost item increases in price: glass, cork, packaging, fertilizers, fertilizers, fuel, transport, and above all electricity and gas.
Not only have prices increased in a short time, but there is an increasingly serious shortage and slowness in supplies. Many wineries complain that their orders for labels, boxes, packaging, bottles, caps etc… are delayed delays leading to delayed orders and deliveries for buyers, sometimes up to a month or more, both national and international. This is what emerged a few days ago from the Censis-Alleanza Cooperative Agroalimentari Wine study, “La febbre dei costi” presented in Rome.
Even the materials used for wrapping and packaging have undergone increases which will inevitably be reflected in the final price of the wine. Between the beginning of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, and therefore net of the effects due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the producer price of glass increased by 8.5% and that of cork by 9.4%. On the other hand, increases for paper and packaging are between 23 and 30%.
These few lines that explain what is happening in Italy make it clear that these increases will fall either on the producer, the winery, as long as it will be able to support them, and impoverish it; or on buyers, importers, distributors and ultimately on the final consumer.
My final advice: «do not wait to make your new orders and purchases, prices will rise in the future, it is better to shop until the prices have increased yet».
