Foodsectornews.com - Reformation Needed for Organic Food Industry of Italy

Reformation Needed for Organic Food Industry of Italy

Friday, 15 June 2007

Two major farming associations of Italy said on September 7, 2006, that the organic food industry of Italy needs a major revamp and legislative

support to cope with the public's thriving demand.

During the Italian Agriculture Ministry's meeting, the Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA) and Coldiretti insisted the Italian government to take some action. Giuseppe Politi, President, CIA, said, "There is a radical need for a sustainable support framework in the form of infrastructures, like packaging and processing, warehousing, and large scale distribution."

He further said that sufficient solutions are required for the sector that has shown a growth of 21.7% over last year. This has put Italy in the 4th place in world, after Australia, China and Argentina, with Europe being the 1st.

He said that the government must introduce an Italian organic label to catch up with countries that took this step long time back. These countries are Germany, Holland, Denmark, France, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland.

He described the label as "vital" to support the recent reversal in Italian organic food production and stated "After years of losses, the sector saw a rise in 2005, resulting in a 12% raise in arable land for organic farming, a 22% jump in the number of farmers engaged in organic farming and - for the 1st time - a fall in the number of importers, by 6%."

As per Coldiretti, organic products account for 2% of the turnover of Italian food industry' and the share is increasing fastly.