The Italian wine sector has warned of glass shortages this autumn, which could amount to between 150,000 and 200,000 tonnes.
The Italian Wine Federation (Federvini) claims that there will be insufficient availability of bottles between December 2022 and January 2023 to cover foreign exports.
The general director of Federvini, Vittorio Cino, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that more than 700 million bottles have been already sold, but there is a risk that they will not all be delivered due to a shortage of glass shortage.
A lack of glass bottles is affecting wine producers across the board, especially smaller wineries.
Various Issues Affecting Sector
Among the factors that are at root of the problem are high energy prices, supply chain delays, rising raw material prices, and an ongoing logistics crisis, according to Federvini.
For example, soda ash, essential in glass production, has traditionally been imported from the Donbass, a region at the centre of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Although price hikes are affecting all EU countries, the glass shortage problems are impacting Italy more than France or Spain because the latter have other sources of supply besides Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a survey by the UIV-Vinitaly Observatory shows that the hike in energy prices (of around €425 million) and of raw materials (of more than €1 billion for glass, paper, cardboard, corks, aluminium) have resulted in an 83% increase to wine production budget.
In addition, other items such as bulk wine, commercial, and workforce costs have increased production costs by 28% this year.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Packaging and Design news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
