US importers stockpile Prosecco to get ahead of tariffs

American imports of Prosecco shot up by 41% in November, according to the Union of Italian Wines, as distributors take precautionary measures against future Trump tariffs on European wine.  Trump won the US presidential race for a second time on 5 November, backed by 312 states compared to Kamala Harris' 226. Declaring it a "magnificent victory", he said: "America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” That same month American imports of Italian sparkling wine (90% of which is Prosecco in the US market) leapt by 41%. The numbers suggest that US importers and Italian producers are both feeling jumpy about potential tariffs being slapped on European products. They are right to be cautious as less than a month after moving into the White House, Trump imposed tariffs of 25% on Canadian imports, while China has been hit with 10% tariffs on products it ships to the US.

Vulnerable

According to trade association the Union of Italian Wines, headed by Lamberto Frescobaldi, Italy exports nearly a quarter of its wine to the United States, leaving the sector vulnerable to potential tariff hikes. Last year, Italian wine exports to the US were worth €1.9 billion (US$1.97 billion). The data indicates that importers actually began hedging their bets much earlier than Trump's election, with Prosecco shipments to the US increasing by 17% between January and October, 2024. This outpaced growth in US consumption of Prosecco (which rose just 0.6% during the same period), suggesting that importers are stockpiling to prevent a shortage later on. "It is an important figure that we did not expect,'' said Giancarlo Guidolin, president of Prosecco DOC. "We think there was an increase of product in the warehouse.'"

Contradiction

Interestingly, these booming Prosecco imports in the US contradict one of the key findings from the latest Silicon Valley Bank Wine Report. The report, released at the end of January 2025, found that the US wine trade has wrestled with full warehouses for several years. A hangover of surplus stock left over from the Covid-19 pandemic meant US retailers were less inclined to take on more stock and the report stated that "clearing backed-up wholesale inventory and returning to predictable depletion volumes will likely take most, if not all, of 2025 and possibly continue into 2026.” So not only will US importers have to find ample storage for all the extra Prosecco they're bringing in (with current warehouses already heaving), they will also need to be confident that consumer demand will be there to shift it.