At the 5th annual “Wine & Siena” this February (1-3 February 2020), women from all corners of the wine industry in Italy gathered in Siena, Tuscany to bring good news on the future of women winemakers.
The event is organised every year by The WineHunter Helmuth Köcher who conceived the famous Merano WineFestival, and the local Confcommercio Association of Siena, to celebrate The WineHunter Award winning products in Siena, a historical city and symbol of Italian viticulture. The 2020 edition is dedicated to the deepening of issues related to the female side of the world of wine.
At the inaugural “Women entrepreneurs in the wine industry and their access to grants” conference that opened the event, the results of the analysis conducted by Professor Lorenzo Zanni and Dr. Elena Casprini of the University of Siena on the 890 entrepreneurs of the Italian Women of Wine association were surprising. The research revealed that the 97% of women had access to the financial credit and grants they applied for (to start their wine companies), showing that women in wine aren’t waiting for seats at the table. 50% of the women surveyed requested credit from local banks, 41.8% from national banks and credit institutions and 4.7% from other sources of financing. A truly positive result and significative stimulus for female managers in the wine sector.
Today, in the agricultural sector, women entrepreneurs lead a third of the companies and, while only taking care of 21% of the UAA (usable agricultural area), they obtain the 28% of the agricultural GDP showing a strong managerial capability.
“Women in wine are a privileged group – explains the national President of Women of Wine Donatella Cinelli Colombini – because they lead companies that, according to a survey carried out 3 years ago, which are international, diversified, organic oriented and producing wines of high quality. This is why the Siena survey shows us the light at the bottom of the tunnel, while in other economic sectors the gender gap is still strong”. The wine world has long been male-dominated, but it now the time has come to turn the wine industry.
