In Italy a quarter of organic vineyards of the world, but there is not yet a database of the sector

“The Italian organic vineyard deserves more attention than it has today. We represent a quarter of the hectares of organic vineyards in the world, with an extension that in the last decade has increased by over 100%, but we still do not have a database on the sector to observe the phenomenon, starting from its fundamentals, related to production, packaging and sales”. Thus Alberto Mazzoni, director of the Istituto Marchigiano Tutela Vini (Imt) and representative of the Italian Consortia in the Wine Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“To date - Mazzoni added - the Italian Consortia are not able to monitor the trend of an increasingly strategic production model, nor to support its evolution through higher scores in European, national and regional competitions. Marche, one of the most organic regions in Europe in relation to the area planted with vines, has recently signed the Pact for the single organic district that, thanks to the participation of the Region and all the sector's unions, will become the largest European area attentive to the development of sustainable practice and the health of consumers. To the Councillor for Agriculture, Mirco Carloni - Mazzoni concludes -, in ensuring full support for the project, we ask now to be a forerunner in the national context also in terms of monitoring, with a database of organic wine, whose demand is rising rapidly in northern Europe, the United States and other strategic markets of our products, starting with Verdicchio”.
The answer of the Agriculture Councillor of the Marche Region, Mirco Carloni, was not long in coming and it was a total adhesion to the proposal of the enologist and manager Alberto Mazzoni. “Activating a national data bank about production and sale of organic wines - Carloni replied - is not only an agreeable idea but also a strategic choice in order to make grow a practice with a strong added value that goes in the direction desired by the Marche Region. I will submit the request to the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, certain that the Minister Stefano Patuanelli and the Undersecretary in charge of wine, Gian Marco Centinaio, will understand its strategic value. Last week - added Councillor Carloni - we signed the Pact for the unique organic District of the Region, and wine will certainly have to be a protagonist in the game that we will play in favor of the agri-food of the Marche region but also of consumers, the environment and tourism in the area. The Marche region wants to be identified as the Italian outpost of organic and its wines need strategic tools to continue to grow and to support a rapidly expanding market”.
Today, according to the analysis of the maxi-consortium in the Marche region, which protects 16 regional appellations, with 652 members, out of 100 producers of organic grapes only about ten package it as organic. An inequality that debases the work done in the fields, and zeroes a potential added value of high quality products that can make the market. According to Sinab, the information system of the Ministry of Agriculture, the national surface of the Italian organic vineyard is 107,000 hectares, with an incidence of 17% on the total cultivation. The Marche region of wine has a very strong green identity, and occupies the third position among the regions with the highest organic concentration in the vineyard (34% of the total vineyard), behind Calabria and Basilicata. According to a recent survey carried out by the Vinitaly-Nomisma Wine Monitor on wine producers in Italy, organic wines, together with sustainable ones, will be the ones that will grow the most in consumption in the USA, UK, Germany, Japan and Australia, much more than other trendy types, such as low-alcohol wines or rosé wines.