Italian Ministers Dario Franceschini (Culture) and Maurizio Martina (Agriculture) proclaimed 2018 as the National Year of Italian Food. Starting in January many events linked to Italy’s culture, food, and wine tradition will take place. All the events of the Year of Italian Food will be marked by an official logo that was presented for the first time some days ago during the announcement of the program.
UNESCO recognitions in Italy
The focus will be on UNESCO recognitions related to Italian food such as the Mediterranean Diet, the Sapling vine of Pantelleria, the Landscapes of the Langhe Roero and Monferrato, Parma Creative City of Gastronomy, and the recent Art of Neapolitan Pizza Maker. It will also be an opportunity to support the already submitted nomination for Prosecco and the last one which is related to Amatriciana. At the same time, initiatives will be launched to promote historical rural landscapes. Finally, there will be a specific focus on the fight against food waste and for the involvement and promotion of supply chains. The close link between food, art, and landscape will also be the heart of the tourism promotion strategy that will be continued throughout 2018 by ENIT and by the network of Italian embassies in the world. This will allow to highlight how the wine and food heritage is part of the Italian cultural identity.
Export sales record
We have a unique heritage in the world – said the Italian Minister of Agriculture Maurizio Martina – that we can enhance thanks to the Year of Italian Food. After the great experience of Expo Milano, the national agri-food heritage is once again the protagonist in all areas. It is not just a matter of underlining the economic results of this sector, which in 2017 reached the export sales record of €40 billion, but to reaffirm the deep connection between food, landscape, identity, and culture. We will do this by starting the new project of food districts and by involving the protagonists such as farmers, breeders, fishermen, and chefs. I think it right to dedicate the Year of Italian Food to a figure like chef Gualtiero Marchesi, who has truly embodied these values by making them known all over the world.
Food and Culture
After the success of 2016 (National Year of the Routes) and 2017 (National Year of the Villages), 2018 will be the Year of Italian Food. It is an important opportunity to enhance our various extraordinary excellences and the image of our country in the world. Thanks to the collaboration between the Ministries of Culture and Agriculture Italy will be able to promote itself abroad in an integrated and intelligent way, enhancing the intertwining of food, art, and landscape that is surely a distinctive elements of Italian identity. With these words the Italian Minister of Culture and Tourism Dario Franceschini has announced the start of the social communication campaign of state museums, which focuses on the age-old relationship between arts, food, and wine, underlining its fundamental role in the creation of the Italian cultural heritage.
