Ep. 1321 Matteo Zoppas | On The Road Edition With Stevie Kim

By now, you've all heard of Italian wine Unplugged two point o. The latest book published by Mamma jumbo shrimp. It's more than just another wine book. Fully updated second edition was inspired by students of the Vin Italy International Academy and painstakingly reviewed and revised by an expert panel of certified Italian wine ambassadors from across the globe. The book also includes an addition by professor Atilio Shenza. Italy's leading vine geneticist. The benchmark producers feature is a particularly important aspect of this revised edition. The selection makes it easier for our readers to get their hands on a bottle of wine that truly represents a particular grape or region to pick up a copy, just head to Amazon dot com, or visit us at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Welcome to another episode of On the Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, she travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the Foods, as well as the incredible travel destinations. Hello, everybody. My name's Stevie Kim, and welcome to the Italian Mine Pod cast. This is the on the road edition, and we are here in Dusseldorf. And this is a special area dedicated to Italian wine. Everything about Italian wine. It's tons of tastings. We have eight, Italian wine tastings dedicated to trade professionals. And we have a podcast booth, as you can see, and we are interviewing the producers of the wines, which we are tasting today and tomorrow. So follow us for more, and don't forget to click to follow us and rate us if you can. That would be really a great favor that we ask you. So today's guest as a special guest, will have to be a kind team because it's his debut as the president of what I call each head. What does each day stand for? No. It's the Italian trade agency. Right. That's right. I it's also ice, you know, for the foreigners. So he is the neo newly elected president for Eche or Italian trade agency. Now, and his name is Matteo Zopas Zopas. That's not very time you made, missus. You said? No. Seems that it's coming from, Greece. Originally, it's coming from Greece. Seems as well. You didn't get the confirmation, but, it seems Where are you from originally? I'm from Cortonone, which is in Freoli, northeast of, of Italy. And then I moved, next in, in Venice. It's supposed to go to Vienna. Okay. Yeah. Everybody knows Corneliano for, of course, prosseco. So you are an Italian wine in a way, a resident of Italian wine. Forever. Kind of. And maybe it's your destiny, you know. Kind of. I mean, I I grow it up in the in the wine lands. I'm free willy and Benito. I was surrounded by vineyards for sure. So of course, EHA is not just wine, although I only care about wine, but it's the entire, various sectors. Right? So tell us what sectors it covers in the grand scheme of things. Well, actually it's it's even more than that. It's, it's a concept. It's, we're talking about the meat in Italy. So everything which is produced in Italy, and it has to be, traded outside Italy. That's the object of, what each agency is taking care of. So we are promoting the Italian manufacturer product all around the world. Nevertheless, the categories, so everything. And of course, it's also in in some way, it's difficult, but also easy because when you talk about making it in the world, it opens you a lot of yours. So what we usually are doing is to promote the Italian Italian uh-uh production the products. So, I mean, the middle Italy with, helping more shows, doing some incomes, incomings, trying to to to get closer the demand and an offer of the of the products. So that means, that the real point where we, act is, as an objective as a target, is the is the best of matching between who wants to buy Italian products. And we help them to find, to find the local product and vice versa. So, mister Zobas, how did you how does one become, not just you, but how does one become the president of each end? How does that work? Well, aside the, let's say, bureaucratic, way to to get there. I think that, someone has to be very sensitive to the to the the to the media. Italy has no on the entrepreneurship, business, and and there's some skills about, to say, institutions, especially our institution. We have to get formatted with institutions. Sometimes also for politics. So it's a it's a it's a long journey, but at the end, now I have this, charge, and I hope that I will be able to do it at the best. My my background of, or being around the world selling something, made me made me, felt at me to have an understanding how the things are going when we want to sell something outside, especially when something is not already known and doesn't have a general open. So this is something that, it's gonna be my commitment to try to do and to help all the all the companies through the organization to do in in the next years. So when on did you officially become the president of each. Sixteen, February two thousand twenty three. So just now, basically, right? It's almost it it's almost like a month anniversary. Right? So, Learning meeting people Right. Knowing the team. It's an excelling team. They're working very, very good, talented people, the people that, also, some of them are living abroad. Yeah. Seventy eight, the offices around the world. Seventy eight. Seventy eight around the world and grandparents is where we we are kind of a sentinels or, satellites, for for people that would like to open new markets. Mhmm. So they they can call each end. We give a lot of services. We think they're about shows. For example, like, collective disposition on on the shows, we organize incomes for buyers for people that, can make the difference, especially for a small, medium, medium company. In Italy. I mean, there is a lot of things to do now. I'm getting to know the people, which is the main thing. Mhmm. People are usually the the the legs of a company, of an agency. And then also the World American is not, I think that, it's it's a very challenging job, but, it's also a big responsibility because we we can make the difference with these agencies. Yeah. So tell us what you've been doing the past month or so. What is, like, your typical day? Do you I mean, of course, here you're here to inaugurate the area, the institutional area of each end as a representational area. I imagine you do a lot of ribbon cutting. Is that a cliche? Or That that could be. I mean, that's, that's the part of the job that you see, but, of course, I mean, you have to give the guidelines to, I mean, to manage also with the board to give the guidelines to the to the structure. And, of course, this is not my my moment today because I just work twenty days of Mhmm. Of presence. But, right now, I'm going around and trying to meet people to understand the mechanism, and and trying to see to to create, let's say, an idea of what we can do the next years. So I don't know if you're ready for this question, but your team have given me some figures. Some facts and figures. That's tricky. Okay. So they said in two thousand twenty two, ended with positive results. Let me translate that for you. Eight million euro for exports. What are the predictions for two thousand twenty three? Yeah. That's very that's a very difficult, answer. For sure, you cannot say a number right now, or there could be a prediction, but it's it's It is made of many variables. For sure, we had a very, very tough period in the last two years. Yeah. First because of the COVID, you know, the COVID gave, especially to the export, tough times. There was, markets opening and closing, for the lockdowns that we had. So every every month, you could have had a different scenario worldwide. And then, especially, you remember the Horeca business, we were gonna talk about wine as well was was really, hard because we had total a hundred percent of down restaurants for a for a while. Then we then we had, after after the COVID started to reopen. Mhmm. You remember there was a moment where the the next exiting of the lockdown, more or less when the a vaccination started, give some, some trust on people. So the economy started to rise again, and in that moment, also the lockdown were closed were opening. And so everybody started to reorder, and the and this was one of the reasons why the transportation collapsed. People wasn't even able to find containers around to go to United States or for China. And just after that, the the cost of the transportation, the duplicates, I mean, there was some some freight that was posted ten times more. Mhmm. So you can understand for these guys was very, very tough. And now now we see the the market of the transportation, which which is going down again, not like the beginning. We saw But definitely stabilized. Right? It is not came down. It came down. It didn't go went down to the beginning going, but it is it is going toward that direction. So it'll be some trust on on the market. After the COVID, you remember, we had also the the a conflict that started this, especially for our companies, for well entrepreneurs were very tough because the cost of the energy, arrives at also ten times. So in terms of the energy five times was the the transportation. Anyway, an affordable values. Are you enjoying this podcast? There is so much more high quality wine content available for mama jumbo shrimp. Check out our new wine study maps. Our books on Italian wine including Italian wine unplugged, the jumbo shrimp guide to Italian wine, Senger Vazzy Lambrusco and other stories, and much, much more. On our website, mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Now back to the show. So even for that, we have our government that helped us with some credits, and additional credits, but and and in this case, also, the the energy is starting to go back to the normality. Didn't reach the normality. We do not have to go back to the beginning, but, I mean, it's gonna hit out of trust. So, the the situation can be more positive than the second half of two thousand twenty two. And I see entrepreneurs and people that, that are, already, I would say, restarting with with the mood to have a good, in Brazil. The export from this reason is, less penalized than the second half of two thousand twenty two. So it's if there is some potential to grow. So, you know, you're a little you in English, we say you're cautiously optimistic. Right, for the forecast of two thousand twenty. Honestly, people that got a pandemic and and the conflict, I don't know what else can happen, but I mean, there are many variables that you cannot predict, but, unfortunately, the closing ticket of domestic. Okay. So, you know, you these are some of the challenges, of course, the the Italian made in Italy had had faced during the lockdown and even till even till I would say very recently. And things are now starting to look I mean, just look around you. Right? I mean, this is a very strange to me right now because no one's wearing a mask. We are we are not wearing a mask. Yeah. And on the plane, nobody's wearing a mask. At restaurants, no one's wearing a mask. Right? So after that, we we have become much more resilient. Right, as as people. But what do you think you would like to accomplish as the president? I know you've just been here for twenty days. Alright? But what are your if you can do anything during your how how long is your mandate? First of all? It's two plus three years. So so possibly four years. Let's say. So which is like midterm. In the first two years. What would you like to accomplish? I don't have the audio saying, but pick the magic wand. The magic wand. Okay. Thank you. You don't. I I don't. I I'm just let's say coordinating and, possibly leading a group of, of, many people, almost thousand people that, are working on, promoting, communicating, and and and do everything what can be done to to match businesses, business parts. And, I hope that, we will continue to do this, and my aim is to create a strong momentum. To have our our meeting in Italy increase, more than than it happened in the last two years. I cannot give you a figure, of course. Yeah. But, what what is we already have people running running very well. So I I I want to I want to be able to have this structure run as well as it does until today. And maybe we can help by my entrepreneur background to give some, some other value that can be capitalized on more results. So can you share with us a little bit, you know, your personal background as an entrepreneur? What you are doing prior to doing this job as if you will. Yes. I would like to say that, without naming my gutters. Yeah. That's fine. I was, I mean, my previous job till, in the twenty eight days ago was to, to sell and to develop, very important, mid in Italy, brand. Around the world, the the band was already present in a hundred states, but, I mean, at the beginning, it was a beginning a status. So I was knocking doors around the world to potential distributors. So literally, yeah, you are going to seek out distributors. To seek out distributors, and and then that was mapping distributors, knocking doors, giving getting a lot of refuses. And, you know, being gentle with all the potential clients and and all these stuff. So then also contributing on, on the rest of the the company activities, but there was mainly focused on internationalization of the brand. So, let's say it's very, very close by, activity of what, interest is doing in in on the bank on the main business. So I feel very comprehensive of, what is it been with right now, what they have been with right now. And, this is why I would like to be able to give some some added value to the store. Yeah. I think that's a great idea. So you've been in their shoes. Right? You have exactly done what what the, the entrepreneurs, the businessmen are trying to do, how to better promote, made in Italy abroad. And now let's say, I'm working with the other with other guys colleagues, with an instruments that can help them. So I would like to be able to maximize the the effectiveness of the system. Can you give us some examples of these instruments? Some examples, I mean, it's very easy. I mean, on on the main shows, especially when a project is presented to to each of with some permission that approves it is in the and we can improve that. It's giving out only promotion, but, our results on creating business opportunities. Mhmm. Around the world, we can approve it to deserve money and we're cultivating this. I would say that, collective shows relative, obviously present that will show the main shows. Mhmm. In this case, we're talking about, one shows or, or, fashion shows or anything which we could be So, like, trade fairs. Yes. Mhmm. Traverse. And, and we keep collectors where where we also, help the, the, the present companies to, to find potential clients. So we have, in some cases, we also analyze incomings especially in Italy in coming of international buyers. So the the people that can make the difference to our to our companies that there be a buyer that choose a product or a company which is present that we that we match, and and can also double or triple the size, especially if it is a small medium, medium company. So with the incumbents, we we take also a hundred of the fifty buyers. We bring also people from the media to talk about, maybe, Italy, to talk about our our absences and our and our new house. We do we do promotions of communication about the media in Italy, around the world and, you know, location that can help us. This is just some of the benefits that that we do. Yeah. I mean, I love. Of course, I've been personally working with Eichi for many years now. So maybe you know, man, man. Yeah. So I always say that this side of the incoming, stimulating incoming. As much as possible is the key to the success of needing its way abroad because with regards to wine, I always said that the French are not better in making wines. They don't have better wines. They don't have higher quality wines. But what they're very good is able to bring the buyers their potential ambassadors back to their community, back to their country, and then they can turn them into their ambassadors. Right? So In this seventy eight, almost eighty offices that we have around the world, we have people there that is scouting for potential potential businesses. So this is something there are a bunch of people that, is in love with made in Italy. And a bunch of people that don't doesn't know how to reach Italy and select and select products. So on the other side, we we have a network outside with a network inside of Italy to reach these people, with the, as a category of association of categories or other institution that help us to match this to to sites. So as much, for coming back to your, to your question, with with my knowledge, if I if I if I can put it at the service of my country, to be able to maximize this process, this will be my goal. Yeah. Yeah. I cannot give you a target right now because I'm too early. Twenty days. Come on. You can't give me a target. But I know it's it's it's very difficult. But, you know, it's, it's a challenge. Again, it's based on, very, very talented people. It's people that, know how to do their their business. And, I really hope that this is gonna we can make, another step forward. And I have to say that, I'm excused myself to the people that I did an area that I made, did a mention in this, interview. But, there's a very big potential. So I'm very happy to be in this place right now. I really think Italians are incredibly generous. And, if we can get the people to Italy, then the game over because Italians are incredibly hospitable. They're getting lumpy with Yeah. Absolutely. When you when you go around the world and you talk about Italy, first of all, we are I don't wanna compare us with other countries, but I I can just say with the the feeling the feedback you have from from the people is always positive. Mhmm. So all the things we do on the on the made in Italy production is, very well accepted. It's, I mean, the prejudice is always positive. And people is always open to evaluate a a a taste. So if you go there and say, I'm made in Italy, it's the biggest, business card that you give to to people. And especially when you go to food, you know, everybody's talking about Italian food, and everybody is looking for for Italian food, you know, fashion food, maybe the main Italian brand that that record is, but then we are very, very good also in video game business, not only business to customer business because we are very good now on technologies and all the other stuff. So it's, this is why I was saying the beginning is also easy to do this job because the the the the work is almost prepared. Mhmm. We just have to do the last mind to to to manage the the businesses. Okay. Well, I think this is a very good way to, wrap it up. We have been speaking to mister Matteo Zopas, the new president of Echek. And what can we say? We will see you very soon, and we will see after maybe a few more days at work, what he has accomplished on behalf of Italy, made in Italy. So thank you. Thank you for supporting us. And that is it. That is a wrap and chinch in with Italian wine people. Until next time. Thank you for joining us on another installment of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content in the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com. Wherever you get your pods, you can also check out our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp, to watch these interviews and the footage captured of each location.