Wine under attack, Federvini “calls” the Government: “Italy must take a stand at European tables”

Whether it is due to a precise design on the part of those with other interests, or to different sensibilities compared to the past on the health front, it is a fact that the wine sector, often too simplistically lumped into the alcoholic drinks bin, is the victim of an attack on several fronts. At European level - where on February 15 the decision of the “trialogue” on the Beating Cancer Plan is anxiously awaited, which if passed as it stands (without making a distinction between alcohol abuse and consumption) could have serious repercussions on the promotion, communication and taxation of wine - but not only, as recounted by the controversy in recent days over the proposal by one of the inventors of the French Nutriscore, Serge Hercberg, to introduce an “F” and a black stamp on the labels of all alcoholic beverages, to mark them as harmful to health, regardless of quantity. These are attacks against which a great deal of institutional work is needed. And for this, especially in a country that is a world leader in wine like Italy, we need “a table of consultation and coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to define the Italian position in all international forums”. This is the request made by Federvini and which the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture with responsibility for wine, Gian Marco Centinaio, has undertaken to put forward in all forums, in the face of the increasingly numerous concentric attacks on the world of fine Italian wine.
“For months we have been appealing to the various competent ministers”, said Micaela Pallini, president of Federvini (whose Wine Group is led by Albiera Antinori), at the end of the meeting today at the Ministry, “to ask for concrete, incisive and determined action to defend a fundamental sector of the Italian agri-food industry. A world made up of sociality, conviviality, conscious and responsible consumption, based on that Mediterranean style that the whole world envies us. We believe that the time has come to give a strong response through a national strategy, which goes beyond statements in the media, and is expressed with consequent punctual and concrete positions on all the discussion tables at European and international level”. It is not a matter of banging our fists on the table”, said Pallini, “but of working on the dossiers with continuity, seeking allies and building broad coalitions to defend our positions, without shyness or inferiority complexes. Too often we are absent or we don't speak where we need to”.
The issues at the centre of Federvini’s appeal are, in particular: the recent French proposal to include alcoholic beverages in the Nutriscore system; the adoption, last January 24, by the Executive Committee of the World Health Organisation (WHO) of an action plan to combat alcohol abuse that limits itself to recommending prohibitionist measures and entrusting a technical body with the task of defining the rules on which to base the dialogue between administrations and the production world, which took place, among other things, in the silence of the Italian delegation, which in the past had always expressed a position of balance and common sense; the desire, expressed in a number of official documents, to revise the taxation system for all alcoholic beverages in a restrictive manner; the proposals that are appearing from various quarters and which envisage bans, prohibitions and alarmist messages as the only means of combating all forms of abuse, which is, moreover, the right thing to do.
These are all signs that within a few months, or at most a few years, the world of alcoholic beverages will suffer a reputational damage and an economic tsunami not seen since the days of American Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s.
“Some people are still hoping”, continues Federvini president Micaela Pallini, “that these dossiers under discussion are just documents of principle without any concrete effect. But this is not the case. Instead, they are programmatic documents that risk finding a regulatory response within a very short time. The time has come for the Italian government to formally express its position. If necessary, even officially opposing certain proposals”. To give an example, in December 2021, Federvini points out, the European Commission presented and had approved, without Italy objecting, the annual program for the allocation of resources for horizontal promotion (funds for millions of euros), with discriminatory criteria towards various sectors. In fact, this penalizes meat, wine and spirits with geographical indications compared to other European agri-food sectors. At the Council of Agriculture Ministers, scheduled for February 21, Poland has already asked to put on the agenda the need to review these principles and to consider the existence of discriminatory criteria against these quality products as unacceptable.
Micaela Pallini, president of Federvini, concludes: “it would be appropriate for the Italian government to comply with this request as soon as possible, so as to avoid the paradox of seeing Poland alone and not our country, in the front line in the defense of our food and wine excellence on European tables”.