Eataly has become the third Italian supermarket chain to stop selling foie gras, according to local NGO ‘Essere Animali’. The decision follows the #ViaDagliScaffali campaign, conducted by Essere Animali, which focused on the conditions in which ducks and geese are raised in France for foie-gras production. Eataly is the third supermarket chain ceasing to sell foie gras in Italy as a result of the activities of the NGO. Previously, PAM/Panorama group and Coop Italy chose to take this course of action. According to Essere Animali spokesperson the NGO’s goal is to remove foie gras from large retailers.
ITALIAN RETAILER SETS HIS SIGHT ON EUROPE – The Eataly brand now has 30 stores worldwide, including outlets in New York, Tokyo, Dubai and Istanbul, and in 2015 the company boasted a turnover of 300 million euros. Farinetti has now set his sights on Europe: an Eataly store in Munich has been opened by the end of the last year, followed by a food hall in Selfridges in London by the end of this year, 2016. Therefore, Farinetti has decided to leave the opening of his Paris store until last, in 2018. In particular, he said that “for me the French are the most competent nation when it comes to food,” and he added that Eataly decided to leave Paris until last because the supermarket chain can’t afford to make a mistake there. Entering the French food market is no easy feat, he considers.
ITALIAN FOOD ADVANTAGES OVER FRENCH FOOD – But the Italian food, however he insists, has two plus over its French adversary, its greater home-grown product diversity and the fact that Italy’s food was born not in a restaurant, but in the household.” It can be stressed the famous Farinetti speech about “After eating an excellent foie gras in a restaurant in France you go home to make it yourself and you go mad because it’s so complicated. But if you eat an amazing risotto or pasta dish in a restaurant in Italy, when you go home it is possible to make it more or less to the same standard.“