CIBUS 2006 - ITALIAN FOOD & AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY INCREASED EARNINGS AND EXPORTS IN 2005, BUT ITALY LOSES POSITION AT INTERNATIONAL LEVEL AND SUFFERS FROM AGRO-PIRATRY ABROAD

Total earnings of 107 billion euros, a 1.9% increase from 2004, and an export worth over 18 billion euros, up by 2.7%: these are the food & agriculture numbers that emerged recently at Cibus in Parma, the international food fair that hosts over 2400 exhibitors from 21 different countries.

Analysis of the sector, conducted by Ismea and Federalimentare, has demonstrated that compared to Italy’s growth in total food exports, it has actually signaled a fall in its position on an international level, passing from seventh to eighth place on the producing countries classification list. Before Italy, comes the United States, France, Holland, Germany, Brazil, Spain, and Belgium. While right behind Italy, are Canada, China, Britain, and Australia. Italy has earned respectable credit but must be aware that others are moving faster.

Within the European Union, which represents 70% of food exports, Italy is in sixth place with its earnings of 12.9 billion euros, following after Holland, France, Germany, Belgium, and Spain. It comes ahead of Britain, Denmark, and Ireland.

President of Federalimentare, Luigi Rossi di Montelera, noted: “This is a situation of fatigue for our export market. The excellent performance of products like cheeses, sweets, pasta, wine, and cold cuts, actually represents a “holding” on the position of acquisitions in past years. Countries like France, Spain, Australia, Belgium, and Holland, however, are working their way ever closer to Italy’s top ratings, even if the study demonstrates that where our specializations are the highest, the competition is less numerous and fierce”.

Overall, the food & agriculture sector remains the second most important division for Italian manufacture. According to Federalimentare data that was recently released, the leading compartments in the sector are dairy (14.1 billion euros), sweets (11.2 billion), wine (7.2 billion), and meat products (7.5 billion). As for demand from abroad, the wine, fish, mineral water, and pasta industries are doing well. Among the foreign markets with the strongest growth is Russia (+34.5%) and Turkey (+32.5).

Within the traditional European markets, rates rose well in Spain (8.1) and Britain (7.1), while France and Germany registered more contained growth with 1.1 and 1.9% respectively. For the near future, according to what emerged at the exposition in Parma, food & agriculture exports should increase by 5.6% within the next 10 years. Putting Italy once again at the 15-16% range for the quota of export’s total market earnings. This is far from other European competitors. And based on this scenario, within the context of Cibus 2006, the president of Federalimentare re-launched his request that the new Italian government hold an “urgent extraordinary session for an agricultural round table” in order to create real heads of state that represent the food & agriculture industry, in particular, the role of a new minister of food, thus allowing for more possibilities to launch more competitive plans on international markets.

The utmost attention has also been requested to control agro-piratry, false “Made in Italy” products, which earn a total of 56 billion euros, almost 4 times the value of real Italian exports. For Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Confindustria president, there are 4 priorities that the Italian food & agriculture market must confront. The first regards the size of companies. “We have companies that are too small and that must grow. It is necessary that they begin processes for merging, making , above all, for markets far away”.

The second and third priorities, he added, regard respectively “promotion and communication”, this last aspect, “connected too often to the reality of small enterprises, who alone cannot activate the right signals on many markets, not only those of Germany and France, but those all over the world”. The fourth point launched by the president of Confindustria regards the theme of internationalization. “Even there, it is necessary to move together, creating a system”.