“Food industry is the driving sector of the Italian economy, and goes better than the general trend.” This is how Ivano Vacondio, president of Italian F&B industries association Federalimentare, comments on the figures about the excellent performance of the sector.
In particular, according to ISTAT data the Italian F&B industry grew by +3% in 2019 over 2018 (while the Italian industrial sector as a whole decreased by -1.3%). “These figures show the countercyclical nature of a sector that, however, is now at risk,” added Vacondio.
“The growth of the Italian F&B sector, in fact, is mainly due to exports, for which the USA is one of the main markets. This worries us, as we fear that starting with the first months of 2020 the harmful effects of duties will be evident. Without forgetting the instability in world economy due to coronavirus” – Vacondio said.
THE PLUS OF ITALIAN FOOD
According to Italian farmers association Coldiretti, Italian food can count on an extended food chain from fields to shelves to catering which reached a total turnover of 538 billion euros in Italy, equal to 25% of total GDP, and employs about 3.8 million people.
Never before have so much Italian food and wine been consumed in the world. In 2019, Italian food and beverage exports reached a historic record growing by 4% (in 2018, export sales reached 41.8 billion euros). Almost two thirds of Italy’s food exports go to the European Union, where the main market is Germany, while outside the EU the United States is still the reference market.
Today Italian agriculture can boast 297 Geographical Indications, 415 Doc/Docg wines, over 60 thousand organic farms, and 40 thousand farms committed to preserving seeds or plants at risk of extinction. Moreover, it can count on the primacy in world food security with the lowest number of agri-food products with irregular chemical residues.