ROME: Italy's wine harvest this year could be the earliest in decades and is expected to be small, due to a heat wave that has gripped the country in the past weeks. But the wine should be high-quality, farmers' associations said Tuesday. The Italian Wine Union said the harvest might come four or five days sooner than the one in 2003, which set the previous record. "The 2007 harvest might be remembered as the earliest one in the last 30 years," the association, which represents industry operators, said in a statement. It said that early wine harvests are becoming common because of rising global temperatures. Especially affected were northern regions, including Tuscany, which produces Chianti and other world-renowned wine, and Friuli Venezia Giulia, where the bubbly spumante is made. Late last month, temperatures in Italy soared to over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), including in wine-growing regions such as Sicily and Puglia. Most other cities registered temperatures in the high 30s Celsius (about 100 Fahrenheit). Scores of fires raged up and down the country, killing two people and burning hundreds of hectares (acres) of vegetation. Coldiretti, a farmers' association, said vintners started harvesting as much as a month ahead of schedule, as the heat wave made grapes grow faster. "2007 - with the hottest second half of the year of the last two centuries - will be characterized by an early and limited vintage, but a high-quality one," the association said in a statement. The Italian Wine Union also said that "expectations of the quality of the next harvest are good." The wine union said it expected production to be down 5 percent from last year's 50 million hectoliters (1.3 billion gallons). Coldiretti said the decrease could be as much as 10 percent. Italian vineyards constitute one of the country's major industries. Last year, Italy sold €9 billion (US$12 billion) worth of wine, including €3.2 billion (US$4.4 billion) abroad, Coldiretti said. In the first two months of this year, exports to EU countries were up 24 percent and exports to the United States were up 16 percent.