NEW BERLUSCONI GOVERNMENT HAS CHOSEN LUCA ZAIA FOR MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE. COLDIRETTI: “GOOD JOB”. VALENTINI (CITTA DEL VINO): “WORKING TOGETHER TO SAFEGUARD THE RURAL PATRIMONY AND INNOVATION IN WINE TERRITORIES”. CONFAGRICOLTURA: “WORK IN COMMON”

The newly instated government under center-right leader Silvio Berlusconi has chosen Luca Zaia as the new Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry Politics.

Minister Zaia is considered an “enfant protégé” of the nationalist Lega Nord party that is also part of Berlusconi’s government coalition. Zaia was previously Vice President of the Veneto Region, with responsibilities for the areas of agriculture, zootechnics, tourism, promotional activities and commerce abroad, and will now be, at 40 years old, one of the youngest ministers in government.

Zaia has a broad background that includes a diploma in enological studies, a degree in the Science of Animal Production, as well as a stint as a company director. In 1993, he was first elected as Communal Councillor in Godega as the Lega Nord Liga Veneta party representative. Then in 1995, he became Provincial Councillor for Agriculture.
In 1998, Zaia was elected for the first time as President of the Treviso Province, making him the youngest Provincial President in Italy. His role included responsibility for agriculture and forestation, institutional affairs and relations with the European Union and internationally. His role as president was reconfirmed in 2002. And from 2005 to the present, Zaia held the role as Vice President of the Veneto Region, during which time he created such initiatives as the Provincial Agricultural Information Office, the Consortium for the Tutelage of Radicchio of Treviso and Castelfranco Veneto, as well as defending olive and chestnut growers of the region. Zaia also helped promote and launch the first School of Enology with a recognized degree in enology in Conegliano.

The president of the Italian agricultural organization Confagricoltura, Federico Vecchioni, congratulated Luca Zaia for his election and added that, “Confagricoltura has confirmed its total availability for working together in the interests of Italian agriculture, especially given the important upcoming European and international deadlines”.
The agricultural union Coldiretti, instead, expressed hopes, “that the new Minister of Agriculture will finally be able to realize the necessity to bring agriculture to the center of the national economy”.
The union president, Sergio Marini, also noted that there is, “faith in a new vision of politics that is expressed through a different relationship between the government and social forces that will include coherence, correctness and transparency, with an authentic and efficient valorization of the territory and its distinctiveness, with a re-launching of the quality of “Made in Italy” foods products, and the surpassing of the weaknesses of community agricultural negotiations with the promotion of enterprises and the development of populations from the Italian country sides.

The Comments of Città del Vino President, Valentino Valentini:
“Our goals have always been the safeguarding of the rural Italian patrimony, of innovation and giving potential to the wine territories, and for this reason it is satisfying to see that the new ministers - with whom the “Cities of Wine” will have to work with and to whom we say good job - are competent and young people. This gives us hope for future work together with these institutions”.

These words were the response of Valentino Valentini, president of Città del Vino (Cities of Wine) – the association that includes all of the areas with the highest concentrations of wine production, or, 70% of Italy’s vineyards, 89% of DOC, DOCG and IGT wines, and 22% of the country’s agri-tourism – and his convictions that the newly elected ministers, in particular, Luca Zaia, are truly competent for the jobs assigned. Valentini is also convinced that the many younger ministers who have now been elected may be more willing to promote the importance of the country’s agricultural, and, in particular, enological patrimony.
Valentini also hoped that the new ministers would pay attention to the main points to be attended, which had already been expressed to them in a pre-election letter.

The main issues that were listed are:

-tutelage of the environment and Italy’s rural patrimony, its history and culture, through politics that favor the preservation of local ecosystems and that aim towards the use of renewable energy;

- technological innovations and new communication networks so that all of the rural Italian territories can best develop their entrepreneurial activities, keeping in consideration that, today, 70% of tourist reservations are made via internet;
-an elevated percentage of social integration that is behind the production of Italian excellence suggests the need to develop training activities that allow agricultural enterprises to create new work opportunities that favor a socio-economic increase of the inhabitants of an area, while maintaining the traditions that render the products unique;

-the tight synergy between the Ministers of Agriculture and Cultural Heritage in sustaining a new grand industry for the eno-tourism sector, which, today still has 80% of its full potential to develop;

-the refinancing of the law (268/99 that favors the 140 Strade del Vino (Wine Roads) - which have been officially recognized and are a fundamental tool for the promotion of the territory – and the sanctioning of new resources for companies and Municipalities to be able to improve their services that help make eno-gastronomic itineraries function, which is the main reason of travel to Italy together with its art, culture, and landscapes;

-the support of new educational campaigns for consumers with particular attention to the younger generations, and against all forms of alcohol and food abuse and in favour of food safety and correct information on the beneficial effects of wine, as have been demonstrated by numerous international studies.