The competitiveness of the Italian wine in the global market: current and future trends with a focus on Sicilian wineries

Abstract

The production of wine, unlike other types of products, is strongly related to the territory of origin and a significant role is played by the climatic conditions of the place where winemaking activities take place. For this reason, over the years, countries such as Italy and France have managed in preserving their prestige and dominant position on the market by making quality wine. Italian wine, which has always been considered a first choice within the purchasing process of consumers all over the world, enjoys a significant prestige internationally. But foreign market penetration approach (and consolidation of the presence in foreign markets) is complicated, especially in the current context characterized by the pandemic situation, due to the Covid-19 virus, where digitalization becomes crucial. In order to understand the factors of competitiveness of Italian wineries, the thesis, after an overview of the global wine industry with reference to the impact of the Covid-19 virus, aims to provide an analysis of internationalization and marketing strategies. Finally, the thesis focuses on one of the most relevant regions of Italy concerning wine production: Sicily. Hence, an analysis of the business cases of some Sicilian wineries, different in terms of organization and size, is reported based on the information gathered from interviewing each firm, in order to observe differences and similarities of the covered topics.