Wine consumption in Europe is "inherently moderate." These were the words of Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of the Italian Wine Union (UIV), at the conference Moderate wine consumption and the Mediterranean diet, held yesterday in Brussels.
“According to the WHO, wine now accounts for only 11.7 percent of total alcohol consumed worldwide, 44.8 percent is attributable to spirits and 34.3 percent to beer.” Thus the president of Unione italiana vini (Uiv), Lamberto Frescobaldi, speaking today in Brussels at the conference Moderated consumption of wine and the Mediterranean diet, organized by ICE Agency in collaboration with Uiv. “In the EU, consumption has been declining since 2008 and has experienced an overall contraction of 24 percent between 2010 and 2020. This is an inherently moderate pattern of consumption, especially in Italy, which is reflected in active participation of the entire industry in promoting responsible drinking.”
Wine as ambassador of a European heritage
“Italian wine,” Frescobaldi continued, “is and wants to be recognized as an ambassador of the European Union’s heritage, an asset in terms of biodiversity, landscape protection, tradition, history, craftsmanship, lifestyle and, certainly not least, economics. Considering both the direct and related supply chain,” the president recalled, recalling the analysis presented at Vinitaly 2023 by the Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory and Prometeia, “the wine made in Italy in fact employs nearly 900,000 people in about 530,000 companies, with a total turnover of more than 30 billion euros in 2022. An induced “manufacturing-driven” and very high export propensity that is a key lever for the survival of some territories.
Promoting awareness in consumers
“We want to work together with European institutions not only to Improve education on moderate wine consumption – concluded Frescobaldi, -but also to transfer to the legislative level the focus on transparency and the protection of our products that have always characterized our industry: they will find us prepared and ready to support evolution and change, as long as they are based on the assumptions of quality and sustainability That enhance our work and our territories.”
The conference, which was also attended by Ceev President Mauricio Gonzalez Gordon, Stefano Verrecchia, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the European Union, and MEPs Paolo De Castro and Herbert Dorfmann, featured scientific contributions from Prof. Ursula Fradera, Prof. Ramon Estruch and Prof. Attilio Giacosa, a member of the scientific committee of IRVAS, Research Institute on Wine, Food and Health.
