ITALY WILL BE RESCUED FROM THE CRISIS WITH HELP FROM ITS HIGH QUALITY WINE & FOOD SECTOR

“Overcoming the crisis is a challenge that Italy can win if its productive system knows how to seize a bet on the future with its historic characteristics”. These were the words of Ermete Realacci, president of Symbola Fondazione for Italian quality during the presentation of the study “Italy, Geographies of the new ‘Made in Italy’”, realized together with Fondazione Edison. And, it appears that among the sectors worth betting on is the food sector because Italy boasts one of the most competitive in the world. It holds first place for the number of DOP and IGP products (182), and is second only to France for DOC and DOCG wines (434).
Exports in 2008 grew by 10% (the highest of any Italian productive sector) and internal consumption remained stable. Wine, more precisely, is where the most interesting data appeared: Italy produces 40% less than in the 1980’s but the value of exports has quadrupled at 3.5 billion euros, and in 2009 it should become the number one export earner among all national goods.