THE SICILIAN VINEYARD/WINE MAKING CULTURE IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT CAUGHT BETWEEN THE MARKET CRISIS AND THE NEW COMPETITIVE BUSINESS SCENERY.

The world wine market was subject, in the last few years, to deep changes that have affected the production, consumption and trade flows as a result of both the new CMO wine reform and the entry of new producing countries in EU as well as of the processes of liberalization of international trade. The market liberalisation and the increasing globalisation, widened the opportunities for placing wine as a product in new markets, unreachable until a few years ago: China, India, the Far East, and large areas of Central and South America, are not to be considered only as new competitors in various manufacturing sectors, but could provide important new market opportunities for wine companies and new prospectives of enterprises growth. The main goal of this research is to analyse the position of the Sicilian wine-producing sector within the international market, both in relation to the economic crisis which affected the entire global economic context, as well as to the changes that have profoundly changed the competitors and the very structure of wine market, considered in its international dimension. In this paper the authors have examined the internationalisation strategies implemented by Sicilian wine companies, evaluating the export of wine, in amount and value, by product type and country of destination, highlighting the correlations and divergences between the regional and domestic data, in order to identify areas of potential development, stagnation or decline of the demand. The research has been carried out taking into consideration different statistical sources on this field (OIV, FAO, ISMEA, ICE, ISTAT…).