It is best to be quite clear about how matters stand. The fragmentation of supply is certainly an element of exceptional value on one hand, but on the other it runs the risk of becoming one of the main limitations of the Italian wine sector.
Competing every day, on all markets, with players of a size that simply cannot be compared to that of our average producer may be a noble and deserving enterprise, but in many cases it is destined to be short-lived.
Just by way of an example: of all the wine companies listed on the stock markets some are French, while others are German, American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, Chinese and Greek. None of them are Italian.
Does this mean we should give up and imagine a future of increasing weakness of the Italian wine producers? We don't think so. We believe that another, viable route exists and deserves to be explored.
It is the route of a close co-ordination between small-to-medium size producers in the many fields in which this is possible and often advisable.
Such as quality control, at the beginning of the value chain - by means of the Consortia controlling VPQRD production - and the coordination of marketing and promotion, at the very end of the process, by means of companies such as Vigneti di Puglia - Apulian Vineyards.
To be quite frank, this route is also anything but smooth and effortless. Co-ordination is based on trust, which requires time to be built up and can be dispelled in an instant.
Yet we of Vigneti di Puglia - Apulian Vineyards would like to attempt this route.