THE COUNCILOR FOR AGRICULTURE OF FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA, CLAUDIO VIOLINO, ANNOUNCED: “10 MILLION EUROS TO PROMOTE FRIULIAN (EX TOCAI) WINE”

Councilor Claudio Violino, responsible for Agricultural Resources of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, said the agenda is to promote wines produced in Friuli and have one Doc for all the wines in the region.

“The ‘Friulano’ brand is the issue in the limelight”, said Violino, “and 10 million euros, between state and regional funds, are available for the promotion of the ex Tocai wine. Currently 4 million euros have been transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture. The second tranche, another 4 million euros are expected to be transferred within 2010. Along with the funding there is a program of activities with various options, from basic promotion courses for professionals to marketing courses for business owners and from research to improve the quality of former Tocai vines to interventions on the markets”. There will be a technical committee to work on the Doc label for Friuli.

“The term ‘Friuli’, according to those in marketing, is synonymous with excellence in production and evokes positive situations that can be transformed into a value added business. For this reason”, added Violino, “we have prepared a draft to commence discussions”.
Coldiretti, the Federation of Italian Farmers, says it is important not to create confusion on territorial identity, which today is important in terms of image and sales. CIA (the Italian Confederation of Agriculture), Confagricoltura (the Confederation of Farmers) and Confcooperative (the Confederation of Cooperatives) have requested that the DOC does not become the new ‘object’, but instead provides the opportunity to rationalize and give a strong and joint image of the regional wine reality”.