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Italy’s wine producers and exporters have been hit as hard as anyone by the Coronavirus pandemic, with sales and exports of Italian wines dropping significantly over recent months. Italy’s agricultural trade union Coldiretti stated that demand had dropped to the lowest level in 30 years and, as a result, some winemakers have had no choice but to look to alternative options. One of these options was to turn unsold stock into hand gel. Back in early summer the Italian government authorised around 70 million bottles of surplus wine stocks to be turned into hand sanitiser gel – helping make space in cellars ready for the fruits of the new grape harvest and easing hand gel shortages at the same time.