The Christmas and New Year festivities marked a new record for Made in Italy food exports, which reached a total value of 4.4 billion euros in this period alone, thus recording an increase of 11% compared to last year's figures.

This is underlined by the analysis prepared by Coldiretti based on ISTAT data, from which it emerges that the double-digit increase is mainly due to sparkling wine (+29%) and panettone (+25%), products clearly driven by the incidence of festivities. However, it is important to underline the case of the Italian sparkling wine, which alone drags the entire wine sector towards a 15% increase in export value.

Caviar is also on the rise, exploding on international markets with an impressive +146%, while the popularity of traditionally winter filled pasta such as tortellini continues to improve (+4%). Cheeses (+12%), hams, cotechini and various types of cold cuts (+12%) are also on the rise.

As a result, the export record also increases the overall value of the agri-food chain, which in 2021 has become the first wealth of Italy despite the many difficulties related to the pandemic. "The result is that Made in Italy at the table is now worth almost a quarter of the national GDP," declares Coldiretti.