Italy: from quantity to quality

The book “The World’s Wine Markets - Globalization at Work” edited by Kym Anderson provides a comprehensive overview of the global wine industry. The book has two primary components. The first evaluates trends in global wine production, consumption, and trade. The second evaluates these trends for major wine-producing and wine-consuming countries. The book offers a detailed analysis of the wine industry at the beginning of the XXI century focusing the factors that should influence the future direction of such industry, in the framework of an increasing complexity of the competitive scenario, as the geography of production and consumption is rapidly evolving. Indeed, the book including an in-depth look at the growth and impact of New World wine production on the Old World producers, reveals that between 1990 and 2001, the New World’s combined share of world wine exports grew from 4 to 18 per cent, or from 10 to 35 per cent when intra-European Union trade is excluded. Original essays, by economists from each of the major wine producing and consuming regions in the world, analyse recent developments and future trends, and conclude that globalization of the industry is set to continue for the foreseeable future. Furthermore they argue that with increasing globalization, there is a greater need than ever for systematic analysis of the world’s wine markets. Inside the book, the chapter Italy (A. Corsi; E. Pomarici; R. Sardone) is structured in three parts. The first one offers a detailed view of the evolution of the Italian wine sector from 1970 to 2000. The second analyses the structure of the Italian wine sector, focusing wine-growing, winemaking and wine distribution and consumption. The third part analyses the international competitiveness of Italian wine sector; using the Traill and Pitts approach (1998) to the analysis of competitiveness in the food industry are identified the factors which determines the export performance and are outlined the condition for a further enhancement of competitiveness. The whole book is structured as follow: Part I: Overview 1. Introduction 2. The Global Picture Part II: The Old World 3. France 4. Italy 5. Spain and Portugal 6. Germany 7. The United Kingdom 8. The Nordic Countries 9. Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union Part III: The New World 10. North America 11. South America 12. South Africa 13. Australia 14. New Zealand Part IV: Other Emerging Markets 5. East Asia Autors involveded are: L.M. Albisu, J.M. Alston, K. Anderson, E. Auriol, J. Bentzen, H. Bombrun, C. Chen, A. Corsi, R. Farrell, C. Findlay, W. Foster, D. Heien, M. Hulot, K. Kilov, J. Kirsten, J.-B. Lesourd, L. Lockshin, M. Mikic, N. Noev, D. Norman, E. Pomarici, R. Sardone, G. Schamel, S.G.M. Schilizzi, V. Smith, A.L. Spawton, S. Stening, K. Storchmann, D.A. Sumner, J.F.M. Swinnen, A. Valdés, N. Vink, D. Wang, G. Williams, G. Wittwer