Announcement by the President of Veronafiere today at wine2wine
09.12.2015
DANESE: "BUSINESS INVESTMENTS OF 8 MILLION EUROS PLANNED FOR THE 50th VINITALY". MINISTER MARTINA: "EFFECTIVE INPUT TO BUILD THE FUTURE"
The talk show dedicated to the next edition of the international wine exhibition - number fifty - took place last week. CEO and Director General of Veronafiere, Giovanni Mantovani: "Our aim is to attract 800 more buyers in addition to traditional attendance." The new 5 Star Wines Award seeks to be a lever for marketing and trade promotion.
Verona, 9 December 2015 – «We have planned investments of 8 million euros for the 50th Vinitaly in order to support wine business, incoming foreign operators, improve service infrastructures for our clients and ensure an even clearer distinction between professionals attending the event in the Exhibition Centre itself and wine lovers who will have their own reference event in the city centre. All these activities are intended to strengthen exhibition business and are a priority for the new Board of Directors». So said the President of Veronafiere, Maurizio Danese, speaking last week during the 2015 wine2wine talk show (www.wine2wine.net, event scheduled until tomorrow) titled "A great past inspiring a great future – run-up to the 50th Vinitaly", also attended by Giovanni Mantovani, CEO & Director General of Veronafiere, Domenico Zonin, President of the Italian Wine Union, and Sandro Boscaini, Chairman of Federvini.
The way ahead in a sector worth over 14 billion euros in Italy that in 2015 is expected to achieve record exports worth about 5.5 billion euros will increasingly pass through internationalisation. In this regard, the National Plan supporting the wine sector for the 2014/2015 campaign saw funds totalling more than 336 million euros provided to the sector (99% of financial aid allocated).
Vinitaly, all the more, was included in the Special Made in Italy Promotional Plan for internationalisation set in motion by the Government, making an additional effective contribution alongside the EU resources with the scope of the CMO (common market organisation). "The Special Plan," said the CEO & Director General of Veronafiere, Giovanni Mantovani, «also demonstrated its effectiveness with another top event organised by Veronafiere - Marmomacc - which expanded the number of trade delegations and buyers from abroad; we consequently expect that Vinitaly will ensure a further boost to wine Italian exports around the world». The last edition of Vinitaly alone, Mantovani recalled, «achieved international attendance coming to more than 55,000 professionals from 141 countries, accounting for 37% of total visitors. Incoming efforts will be strengthened, with specific action in target countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Poland, USA and Canada, Russia, Japan and China ... as well as for natural and organic wines, with support for specific operators in markets including Northern Europe, Scandinavia, Germany and Benelux. The goal is to attract 800 targeted and selected buyers in addition to those who traditionally visit Vinitaly».
Today, Vinitaly is a network system comprising Vinitaly International, OperaWine, Vinitaly Wine Club, VIA - Vinitaly International Academy, wine2wine, Sol&Agrifood, Enolitech and a number of related awards. Not should we overlook Vinitaly & the City that in 2016 will be the umbrella event grouping all "off-show" initiatives during the main exhibition days.
Logistics will also be strengthened (from traffic to entrance gates) as well as services for operators (data connections, shuttle buses even from Venice Airport, fast track for foreign visitors, etc). The 50th Vinitaly is scheduled 10-13 April. «It does not merely celebrate history but will effectively help build a piece of the future», said the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Maurizio Martina in a video message. He also recalled the key role of Vinitaly at Expo Milan 2015 with the development and management of VINO – A Taste of Italy, the first ever Pavilion dedicated to wine in the history of the Universal Exposition.
«Over these 50 years, we have narrated the story of Italian wine, from problems to possibilities, from difficult times to great occasions, - said Minister Martina. - And in the course of all these years, Vinitaly embodied the entire agenda that enabled Italian wine to develop, innovate and promote itself to achieve major improvements in quality. We have and must continue to work together and with a synergy that achieves effective results for the sector and the country as a whole»
For President Danese, the fiftieth Edition «will be a new beginning, with the firm intention of narrating even the next fifty years of Italian wine history».
The innovations announced for Vinitaly 2016 included the new "5 Star Wines" International Wine Award, presented by Ian D'Agata, Scientific Director of VIA - Vinitaly International Academy. «The new award is designed as a full-scale marketing lever and business tool for companies taking part, - D'Agata explained, - with an international jury of experts for specific production areas which will only consider wines from those areas in a manner that the market can readily understand.» After 22 editions of the International Wine Competition, this is a epoch-making change that further raises the quality stakes requested by participants. It is no longer a competition, as such, but an award granted exclusively to wines achieving a score of over 90 hundredths in the assessments expressed by juries of international experts specialising in the geographic area of origin of the wines.
