Let’s save what can be saved

We are in a real fix. The world of quality wine has always been a precise measuring stick for the economy. The export curve of Champagne, for example, is incredibly close to international stock market indexes. And for us this is serious business. Our wine exports are now are practically equal to domestic consumption and is getting close to 50% of overall production.
Our best clients, however, are always the same, Germany and the United States, which together account for almost two-thirds of the some 20 million hectoliters that Italy exports. On the emerging markets – China, India and Brazil, in particular – we are in big trouble. Not only are we second to France, who are killing us in the East, but also Chile, Australia and Argentina.
In Hong Kong, which currently represents the gateway to China, France has cornered over 50% of the market, taking into account British exports which are almost entirely made up of Bordeaux, we struggle to get a 2% share. It's a little better in China, but for the past couple of years Chile has enjoyed a favored-nation status for its wines, which are taxed significantly less those from other countries.
In a situation like this, the state agencies dedicated to promoting Italian exports, above all food goods, are being shut down. Buonitalia practically no longer exists and the Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) is closing its operations. There have been a lot of claptrap about eventually assigning to embassies the task of promoting Italian exports, without anyone asking why other countries have not done the same if it is a such a good idea. Then again, and I hope this is the case, maybe these are just theoretical possibilities.
The end result is that it has become a free-for-all with everyone going their on way. Consortia, chambers of commerce, groups of producers linked to specific importers, regions, provincial administrations, publishing houses. And the more one has the more they throw in. All this without a general strategy similar to the ones being employed by, for example, France and Australia and, for some time now, Chile. Using this approach to new markets, with vast populations, is simply a foregone suicide.
What we still have in our favor is an incredible number of Italian restaurants and food outlets abroad, which are the true embassies of quality Italian food production. Added to this is the intelligence of small and medium-sized Italian producers, microscopic multinationals, who are able to sell their wines to dozens of foreign countries even if their productions if often between 200-300,000 bottles a year.
All this is often being done without the logistic and financial support which their competitors enjoy. And without some Italian politician responsible agricultural policy going, as the Chileans did, to negotiate better conditions for Italian wine exports to China, for example.
There's an old song by Eduardo Bennato called 'Let's save what can be saved'. This is the appeal I would like to make. At such a critical time we must try to save the positive things and if there is an extra euro from the state for promotion, it should at least be used intelligently, without wasting anything. And we should help those who are already working well and have demonstrated with facts that they deserve to be promoted by Italy for their true excellence, and not political affiliation.