Institutions and Country system at Vinitaly with wine companies, to grow together

Breaking news disrupted the Vinitaly Wine Fair 2024, as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, rotating president of the G7, had to call an extraordinary meeting of the leaders and cancel her visit to the Fair, following Iran’s attack on Israel. She was expected to attend yesterday. Numerous Government institutions are participating at Vinitaly and Italian wine because it is the flagship product of Made in Italy agri-food, and of Italy's exports overall, which are worth 40% of the GDP. It must be promoted not only by companies and Fairs, but also by the entire Country System, enhancing its territorial identity and its uniqueness, linking it to art, culture and innovations, typical of Italian know-how that is loved throughout the world. The Ministers of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida, Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, and Vice Prime Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, as well as the President of the Chamber, Lorenzo Fontana and the ICE president, Matteo Zoppas, the top management of Veronafiere, president Federico Bricolo and CEO Maurizio Danese signed a collective message at the opening of Vinitaly 2024, being held April 14th to 17th in Verona, stating, “We need to take responsibility more than ever, now. Everyone's effort must be to leave our children a better world, in peace, where we can live in harmony together, and where friendship reigns between peoples. Wine is an important sector, it has its own identity, and it is a universal food”, Fontana said. “The extraordinary participation of Government institutions, especially at a time like this”, Bricolo said, “shows their profound interest in Vinitaly and supporting the wine world. In the next few days, we will be in Verona, counting 4.300 exhibitors from 140 Countries around the world. We are not stopping, though, because in May we will be in China, for Wine2Asia, in June we will have the Trade Fair event on wine in amphora here, in September we will be in Brazil, at Wine South America, and in October the first Vinitaly USA, in Chicago. We have chosen to travel the world over counting also on the embassies and consulates, which will be available to promote our excellent products, because the effort must come from the Country system”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken on the effort as well, as Minister Tajani explained also in an interview with WineNews. “We are worried about the Middle East, but we must prevent things from getting worse. Israel cannot be continuously attacked as its survival is a priority. However, we must pursue the goal of two peoples and two States, for Israel and Palestine. I am here as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Forty percent of Italy’s turnover comes from exports, and wine is one of our excellent products that we must promote. We are worried because we have two wars at our doorstep, the Middle East and Ukraine, and a great number of goods pass through the Suez Canal, including a lot of Italian wine. This is the reason that over the last few months we have authorized a defensive military mission to protect all our merchant ships. Where goods are moving, armies do not pass. ICE, SIMEST and SACE work hard to protect exports; it is Government policy. There may be decreases some years due to the economic crisis, or to International tensions, but we can improve more when we work together. Embassies and consulates must more and more be the places to promote wine. We have numerous markets to open, but we must also strengthen the market in Europe. Producers need to know that they are not alone, that there is a Government that supports them, and that is working to open markets as well as to eliminate duties and customs barriers. In Brussels, we made it very clear that wine cannot be declared carcinogenic, because it is not true on a scientific level. the attack on wine and the Mediterranean Diet is treacherous, and we will reject it”, Tajani said (while speaking a curtain was drawn and two activists held up signs for a few seconds reading, “Legalize Cannabis, like wine”).
The message comes from the Veneto Region, which is “the number one Region in Italy in production and exports of wine, totaling more than 2.8 billion euros out of 7.8 billion euros total”, the President of the Region, Luca Zaia, said, and also from “Vinitaly, the best preview possible for the first National Day of Made in Italy, which we will celebrate tomorrow, throughout Italy counting over 300 events”, Adolfo Urso, Minister of Made in Italy, added. “We chose April 15th because it is Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, the Italian genius whose “Vitruvian man” personifies man at the center of everything, which is the Italian production concept, that is, there is always a person at the center of a company and behind a product. The future is here and in agriculture that is ever more linked to technology, including space technology, which we are working on. The Geographical Indications, of which wine and agri-food are the greatest examples, will also be put on industrial products, because we have mapped them. There are at least 200 non-food products linked to our territories, and these too must be inimitable, because they are the our heritage”.
Italy’s enormous cultural and artistic heritage is linked to wine, found in the artworks on display in the Lungarotti Foundation’s Muvit-Wine Museum in Torgiano, at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, in the Library of the Ministry of Agriculture and also in the Ministry of Agriculture’s pavilion at Vinitaly, where wine and art are celebrated. “Thanks to these artworks, we fully understand that the excellence of Italian wine is the result of a long historical process, and a centuries-old skill to produce, which is continually renewed. Italy is a cultural superpower, and the merit goes also to wine and food, which is the reason my colleague, Lollobrigida, and I are working hard to receive recognition of Italian Cuisine as a UNESCO Intangible Heritage”, the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano (also among the art works), said, then turned to the Minister of Agriculture, Lollobrigida, who added, “Vinitaly is the jewel of a Trade Fair system that works around the world. The vineyard enhances territories, and protects them from hydrogeological instability. This is one of the reasons that during the "Wine Ministerial Meeting" recently held together with OIV-International Organization of Vine and Wine, we put sharing research at the center to enable the research centers of many countries to analyze and understand which of the 10.000 vines in the world are the most resistant, the least water-demanding and to look to the future. But, Italy and agriculture”, Lollobrigida added, “need long-term stability, and one Government alone cannot provide it.They give it to the strategic objectives of the Country, which are always the same, regardless what Government is in power. This is precisely why I have summoned the many former Ministers of Agriculture even from different political parties, several times, to share them. And, to look at the future of Made in Italy through the young people of the Agricultural and Hotel Institutes in Italy, who will be tomorrow’s leaders, here on the Vinitaly stage, at the National Made in Italy Day, together with the companies”.
The ambitious goal Matteo Zoppas, president of ICE has relaunched is to reach 10 billion euros in wine exports within the next few years. It is an ambitious goal that is however, feasible, through the work of Vinitaly, because as Maurizio Danese, CEO of Veronafiere stated, “if Vinitaly wins, wine wins, too, and we all win”.