ADDED VALUE IN AGRICULTURE WAS 33.1 BILLION EUROS IN 2015: + 5.6% VALUE AND + 2.2% JOBS. COLDIRETTI SAYS THE ITALIAN PRODUCTION MODEL IS LEADER IN EUROPE, BUT PRICES TO FARMERS ARE TOO LOW

In 2015 added value at market prices in the agricultural sector has increased, reaching 33.1 billion euros, or +2.3% of national added value, 5.6% increase on 2014 market prices and 3.8% in volume, revealed the latest ISTAT figures (www.istat.it).
The added value in the agricultural sector also includes the food industry and in 2015 it grew 4.2% at current values and 2.3% in volume. Employment also did very well, growing overall 2.2%, the number of employees growing 2.8% and self-employed workers, +1.9%. Employment recorded positive results also in the food industry, where the increase in jobs was + 0.7%. In 2015, investments in the agricultural sector showed signs of recovery (+0.6%), after the sharp drop recorded in 2014 (6.1% less). On a regional basis, production in agriculture is growing in all areas except the northwest (1.1% less).
The biggest increases have been recorded in the south (+5.9%) and central Italy (+ 3.5%). In the 28 countries of the European Union, the overall agricultural income indicator for 2015 dropped 3.2% compared to 2014, because of a contemporary production decrease (0.9% less), prices (1.5% less), added value (1.7% less), income factor (4.5% less) and work units (2.0% less). The biggest decrease was recorded in Germany (37.6% less), then Denmark (19.7% less), the UK (19.3% less), Romania (17.8% less), Poland (8.9% less) and the Netherlands (0.8% less) while Greece (+11.7%), France (+ 8.7%), Italy (+ 6.2%) and Spain (+ 3.3%) showed opposite results.
The Italian farmers association, Coldiretti said these results confirm the renewed centrality of agriculture, confirmed by the fact that the added value together with other values has grown 3.8% in agriculture, equal to three times the industry sector (1.3%) and almost 10 times the service sector (+0.4%) and has contributed to the growth of the gross domestic product at market prices: 0.8% in 2015. The Italian agricultural production model, moreover, is also leader in the production of added value per hectare, which is more than twice the EU average, triple the United Kingdom, twice Spain and Germany, and 70% more than the French. This record, though, according to Coldiretti, is at risk in 2016 because of low prices paid to farmers, which in many productions do not even cover their costs due to underpaid agricultural work in the supply chain.
Italy is the greenest country in Europe, has the largest number of Community-wide certifications for food products with designation of origin PDO / PGI, is the leader in the number of companies that grow organic products, and has the lowest incidence of agricultural products with out of norm chemical residues, and has made the decision not to cultivate genetically modified organisms. Italy, continued Coldiretti, is the only country in the world counting 4.886 traditional food products (per regional surveys), according to traditional rules for at least 25 years, 282 DOP / IGP EU recognized specialties and 415 Doc / DOCG wines. Further, Italy also won the green record with nearly 50.000 organic farms in Europe and has made the decision to ban GM crops to protect the biodiversity heritage. Italy is world leader in food security thanks to its environmental protection regulations food security with the least number of food products having irregular chemical residues (0.4%), almost 4 times less than the European average (1.4%) and almost 20 times less than products from out of the EU (7.5%).
These results have been made possible thanks to the great Italian agriculture renewal effort and the orientation law (No. 228 dated May 18, 2001), that Coldiretti strongly supported, which was approved precisely 15 years ago.
There was an agricultural revolution in Italian entrepreneurship that expanded by opening borders to new multifunctional employment opportunities in environmental protection, energy conservation, social activity, business transformation and direct sales, to the defense and promotion of biodiversity. In just three years, concluded Coldiretti, renewable energy producing farms have increased seven times (+ 603%) and the ones that directly transform their products have almost doubled (+97.8%), performing a significant recovery action regarding varieties that would never have survived the rules of modern forms of distribution.