THE FRENCH TAKE MADE IN ITALY TO CHINA: THE FRENCH CHAIN AUCHAN IS TAKING "A TASTE OF THE REGIONS" TO THE ORIENT (UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE). "BECAUSE EVERYONE WANTS TO TASTE ITALIAN FOOD AND IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO SELLS IT"

The world wants Italian food and wine, so even if "Made in Italy" distribution is lacking in Italy, the producers are happy anyway because the big international chains know it is all the rage and it means good business. Auchan, the French distribution giant has been in Italy for 50 years and exports 750 fifty Italian products in 11 countries around the world, from France to Russia, to Spain to Taiwan. And now it is going to launch the "Tastes of the Regions" project in China (under the patronage of the Ministry of Agriculture. The presentation tomorrow in Rome) for the development of typical Italian products in the world, from 1.000 small and medium-sized Italian agro businesses, representing 30% of the total of Italian suppliers and with which Auchan gets 18% of its turnover.
The debut in China is scheduled for November 13th at the Auchan Hypermarket in Shanghai in China. And it makes little difference that the bridgehead for Italy in the Celestial Empire is a French chain. The important thing is that there are "merchants" interested in selling Made in Italy products and customers all over the world eager to buy them - because without one another there is no global market or business on the territory. The short chain and store sales are good, "but if there are no merchants there is no economy, because the border is the world", and it does not matter whether who sells Italian food, "which is all the rage everywhere," is a “French, American or German” chain, because the important thing is to sell real Made in Italy products, as Oscar Farinetti (Eataly) and Fabio Sordi (Auchan) told www.winenews.tv.
According to both men, Italian producers’ horizon has to be the world, "because, for example”, says Farinetti, “Eataly New York will close with at +16% compared to 2011. So, the producers, who are good at producing but not selling, need to trust the merchants, who in turn must know how to do their job. Selling in company stores is all right, but it is 0.5% of the world market share and the grasslands for food and Italian wine are open.
“And the producers are not at all worried if there is no large Italian distributor: "We are a French chain”, explained Sordi, “but what matters for us and the German, American and British chains is to sell. And Italian product sells well, demand is high everywhere, and so we have put many initiatives in place under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture. With our line of wines, for example, in 2011 we exported 1 million euros of product, and in 2012 that figure will double. This is a sign that the demand for Made in Italy is very high all over the world”. And it is a precise indication: for Made in Italy products the horizon is the world because a "manorial" economy that counts too heavily on direct sales in the company, by itself, of course, is not sustainable.