Bell tower wines

It is said that most of the wine made in Italy is sold within sight of the village church bell tower. This has not given wine makers any incentive to improve the quality of wine if they can sell all their wine to the local community who have little knowledge of wines from outside their own region. While some of the more famous regions have improved and discovered export markets, which have massively increased profits, many Italian wines sell for very little keeping the vine growers and makers poor with little to invest that would improve quality. Despite this, because of the amount produced, Italy is the largest exporter of wine with nearly 40% of production going abroad. This, however, still leaves 33 million hectolitres for the domestic market to consume. Compare this to South Africa that only produces around 11 million hectolitres in total each year and exports nearly half.