As a result of the Covid emergency in 2020, Italian food exports are growing (as well as medicines’), while there are sales drops in all other economic sectors. This is what emerges from an analysis by Italian farmers’ association Coldiretti on Istat data about the first seven months of 2020.
In contrast to the general trend, Italian food exports grew by +3.5%, second only to pharmaceutical products (+10.9%). With a value of 538 billion euros, the agri-food industry is reacting much better than other sectors to the dramatic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Italy, F&B guarantee 3.8 million jobs and are worth 25% of GDP thanks to the activity of 740 thousand farms, 70 thousand food industries, over 330 thousand restaurants and 230 thousand retail chains.
ALL HE ADVANTAGES OF ITALIAN FOOD
“The global emergency caused by the Covid pandemic has revealed a widespread awareness of the strategic value represented by food, and the necessary guarantees of quality and safety” – says the President of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini underlining that Italy can boast world-leading resources in this respect.
Italy can count in fact on the undisputed leadership in the EU as for food quality, thanks to 305 PDO/PGI/TSG specialties and 415 Doc/Docg wines. Without forgetting the leadership in organic farming, with over 60 thousand farms, and the food safety world primacy thanks to the lowest number of agri-food products with irregular chemical residues.
Italy is also the leading European producer of rice, durum wheat, and wine as well as of many vegetables that are typical of the Mediterranean Diet such as tomatoes, eggplants, artichokes, fresh chicory, endives, celery, and fennel. As for fruit, the country excels in many important productions: from fresh apples and pears to cherries and table grapes, from kiwis to hazelnuts and chestnuts.