The United States accounted for roughly six out of every 10 euros lost by Italian wine exporters in the first five months of 2026, according to trade data published Tuesday by Istat, Italy’s national statistics agency. The figures show that the American market was the main source of the drop in Italy’s foreign wine sales, with shipments falling in both value and volume and the average revenue per liter declining even more sharply.
From January through May, Italian wine exports to the United States fell 15.4% in value, to 709 million euros, and 6% in volume, to 141.5 million liters. Based on those figures, the year-over-year decline amounted to about 129.1 million euros in sales and about 9 million liters in shipments.
That made the United States the dominant factor in Italy’s broader export slowdown. Using the Istat data, the American market appears to explain about 58.8% of the total drop in the value of Italian wine exports during the period. In practical terms, more than half of the money lost by Italian producers abroad came from one destination.
The gap between the fall in value and the smaller fall in volume points to another issue for exporters: a weaker average return on each liter sold in the United States. The average export value dropped from about 5.57 euros per liter to about 5.01 euros per liter, a decline of close to 10%. That means the U.S. market did not just buy less Italian wine. It also generated less revenue for each liter shipped.
The customs figures do not show exactly why that happened. The lower average value could reflect price cuts, heavier promotions, a different mix of wines sold, or changes in the profile of the exporters and labels reaching the market. It is not possible to separate those effects from the aggregate data alone. Still, the numbers suggest that the pressure on Italian wine in the United States went beyond demand in simple volume terms.
The pattern was different in some other major markets. In Germany, the value of Italian wine exports fell 8.2% in the first five months of the year. In the United Kingdom, it fell 6.5%. But the average value per liter in Germany rose by about 1.2%, while it was essentially flat in Britain. That contrast suggests that, unlike in the United States, the decline in those markets was not driven by the same degree of erosion in unit revenue.
Other destinations showed more resilience, though from smaller bases. Exports to Canada were stable. Russia posted a 17.4% increase in value, China rose 18%, and Brazil gained 15.2%. Japan was nearly unchanged, with a slight decline of 0.2%. Those gains offered some support for Italian exporters, but they were not large enough to offset the setback in the American market.
The figures underline how much Italy’s wine trade still depends on the United States. When a market of that size weakens, even moderate gains elsewhere can have limited impact on the overall result. That is especially true when the decline involves both fewer liters shipped and lower average revenue on the liters that do get sold.
The Istat data cover exports by destination from January to May 2026 and measure performance in euros, liters and average value per liter. Read together, those indicators show that the U.S. downturn was not only a matter of lower demand by volume. It was also a question of what kinds of Italian wines were moving through the market, at what price points, and under what commercial conditions.
For producers, importers and distributors, that distinction matters. A 6% drop in volume can be painful, but a 15.4% drop in value points to a deeper strain on margins and positioning. The American market remains central to Italian wine, and the latest trade data show that its weakness has had a disproportionate effect on the country’s export performance in 2026.
