DE CASTRO: “90% OF SO-CALLED ITALIAN PRODUCTS SOLD IN THE U.S. ARE NOT MADE IN ITALY”

“90% of products sold in the United States as so-called Italian goods or that have a reference to Italy - ‘Italian sounding’ - are actually not made in Italy”. This is the alarm launched by Minister of Agriculture Paolo De Castro during a recent conference in Siena held on the national day dedicated to consortiums for the tutelage of Italian Geographic Indications.
De Castro noted that “agri-piratry” is a widespread phenomenon. In important markets like that of North America, nine tenths of so-called Italian products were actually not made in Italy. The Minister added that it is a phenomenon that must be combated but that “the real difficulty is being able to get our products to arrive on the market”.

“The problem” – concluded De Castro – “is that there are very few Italian products and we must work harder to organize and reach markets while at the same time safeguarding our brands from falsifications”.