Exports of Italian food are flying. Last April, sales recorded a jump of +13.3% on the same period of 2018. in fact, when it comes to foreign trade Italian food is driving the entire Made in Italy economy. This is what emerges from an analysis of Italian farmers’ association Coldiretti on Istat data. It is actually a consolidation of the success of Italian food exports that in the first four months of 2019 reached a record increase of +8%, compared to the previous year.
USA IS THE KEY OF ITALIAN FOOD EXPORTS
The foreign demand for Italian food is driven by the export sales boom to the USA, which showed an increase of +16.6% despite the climate of uncertainty linked to the tariffs’ threat against a series of European products. Good results in April this year also on European markets, with a growth of +13.7% in Germany and +7.4% in France, while sales are slowing down in the UK (+2.9%) under pressure from Brexit. As for emerging markets, there was an encouraging +9.4% for Made in Italy food products in China.
FOREIGN TRADE AND THE GLOBAL DEMAND FOR HIGH QUALITY
The trend highlights the ability of the Italian food sector to intercept the new global demand for high quality, authenticity and typicality but also to interpret the attention to social and environmental sustainability. In fact, in the last 10 years food exports have risen from 23.6 to 41.8 billion euros, with a record increase of 47.8% (against +16.5% of the overall Italian economy).