“Wine tariffs? Chaos inevitable. Producing it is increasingly expensive.” The Censis-Confcooperative study

Producing wine is becoming increasingly expensive. This has been confirmed by a study conducted by Censis-Confcooperative, titled Italy’s Wine Sector: Vineyard Area, Costs and Export, based on data from Ismea and presented during Vinitaly. According to the report, as cited by Ansa, the cost geography of wine production is shifting. While energy costs have progressively decreased by 15.4%, there has been a double-digit increase in agricultural services—particularly outsourced labour, which rose by +27.6% in one year—as well as in goods and services tied to insurance costs and the use of tools and materials for production. Additional expenditure has also been recorded for wages, both for permanent and seasonal workers, with an increase of over 2%.

The impact of tariffs

“The increased rigidity of costs,” said President Raffaele Drei, “could become a critical issue if the United States—Italy’s top market for wine—implements restrictions on the export of Italian products.” Drei expressed concern that “tariffs will cause inevitable chaos on the markets and will have a negative economic impact on Italian wine companies, which have achieved 28.5% growth over the last four years, surpassing 8 billion euros. Of this, around 2 billion euros comes from the export activities of our wineries.”

Export figures

Finally, regarding the breakdown of wine export costs, according to the report, in 2024 the total value was 8,138 million euros, of which 4,152 million euros, or 51% of the total exported, came from wines with protected designation of origin (PDO) status.

22.4%, equivalent to 1.8 billion euros, is attributed to Prosecco (more here), 9.2% or 740 million euros to PDO wines from Tuscany, and 7.5% or 614 million euros to PDO wines from Veneto. Asti Spumante contributes 166 million euros, and other wines from the Piedmont region contribute 389 million euros, bringing the region’s total to 555 million euros. Other regions such as Trentino and Friuli Venezia Giulia contribute 287 million euros, while Sicily and Lazio show more modest figures in terms of foreign demand.