Consortium for the protection of Sicilian Doc wines, sharp recovery in production in the last quarter

A boost that brings to 75 million 515 thousand bottles produced from January to October 2020 against 80 million bottles in 2019. The negative effects caused by the Covid-19 epidemic are therefore confirmed to be less penalizing for the production of Doc Sicilia which has recovered positions and is currently minus 7% from the same period last year.

In the first four months of 2020, therefore in full lockdown, the Doc Sicilia had recorded a decrease in production of 11% compared to the same period of 2019, while the entire sector of Italian quality wine touched a significantly higher decrease in volume.

The growth in bottled in the last quarter of Doc Sicilia - in October there was a decrease of 8% compared to production in 2019 (52.705 hectoliters bottled in 2020 against 57.451 hectoliters in the previous year) - is therefore positively affected the easing of measures to contain the pandemic which affected all the reference markets for the consumption of Sicilian wine. The export quantity of DOC Sicilian wines is about 56% of the total product.

"The data for the last quarter are in line with the expectations of the Consortium's board of directors, which in recent months has reshaped the promotional activities especially in the USA, China and Canada, calibrating them to the measures to combat the pandemic decided by individual countries and monitoring consumption ” Says Antonio Rallo , President of the Consortium for the protection of Doc Sicilia wines. " In the USA, Canada and China - and others are in progress - advertising campaigns, PR and social media initiatives have been carried out which have contributed to increasing information on Sicily and on the wines bottled by the Sicilian Doc companies".

To date, there are more than 460 companies that bottle according to the Disciplinary of the Consortium for the protection of DOC Sicily wines, almost 25,000 hectares claimed and more than 8,354 wineries.