Coldiretti’s malfeasance against farmers and tax evasion, through Campagna Amica, continues throughout Italy.
Not even a conviction by the Council of State was enough to shake a system tinged yellow by flag and offensiveness. #CleanSpades.
Campagna Amica, farmers at the noose
Campagna Amica is a system that organizes and promotes food trade-not just the direct sale of its own produce or purchased from other farmers (1)-on Italian territory. Behind that brand operates the triad of Palazzo Rospigliosi, structured on the central, regional and local levels with the Campagna Amica Foundation (i.e., national Coldiretti), local federations and Coldiretti’s Impresa Verde Srls distributed in every corner of the country. (2)
Fig. 1. Campagna Amica, Bottega on Via Bernardino Passeri 6/8R, 00153 Rome. Featured for sale is Morganti‘s ‘signature coffee’. An agricultural enterprise? (1)
The triad has extreme ease, an understatement, in having Campagna Amica awarded the management of food markets in public areas of strategic value. One example out of all, the space next to Circus Maximus and FAO headquarters in central Rome. Although the Council of State has ruled that concessions of public space to Campagna Amica are illegal because of the onerous constraints it imposes on farmers who wish to participate in markets. (3)
Campagna Amica, the slipknot
‘All subjects who participate in the direct sales agricultural markets managed by Agrimercati must be associated with Coldiretti, must have entrusted all management of their tax, social security and employee accounts to the territorial Impresa Verde company, together with the farm file, i.e., the set of information characterizing the farm to the Coldiretti Agricultural Assistance Center.’
Farmers who wish to participate in markets in public areas colonized by the triad must lend their necks to its slipknot, according to the above pattern found in the bylaws of the ‘Agrimercato’ associations set up by Coldiretti to manage the various direct sales centers. (4) In practice, they must:
– commit by contract to be a member of Coldiretti, so much for the principles of freedom of association and participation in trade unions (Constitution of the Italian Republic, Articles 18 and 39),
– fully entrust the Coldiretti system with the management of tax, social security and public financing in agriculture related to their farm and its employees. In defiance of the fateful Article 62 (L. 27/2012).
Unfair trade practices
The vexatious clauses historically imposed by the large-scale retail trade (GDO) on its food suppliers–compared to the Coldiretti triad’s slipknot–almost seem like a breath of fresh air. And that is also why, evidently, the Coldiretti magic circle has signed agreements and lobbied to obtain the disapplication in Italy of some crucial regulations to protect farmers against unfair trade practices. (5)
However, the Antitrust Authority (Autorità Garante per la Concorrenza e il Mercato, AGCM) has never taken an interest in the unfair business practices imposed by Palazzo Rospigliosi on farmers, not even in the present case. And indeed, AGCM even intervened in support of the AGEA measure that the Lazio Regional Administrative Court ruled unlawful precisely because it distorted competition on agricultural file management services, coincidentally, in favor of Coldiretti. (6)
Extortion
Extortion is the logical, criminal, consequence of the slipknot. If the farmer-suddite does not fully bend to the orders of the triad, the noose tightens. There is no shortage of examples, some of which have already been mentioned on this site in the #CleanSpades saga. In the case of Campagna Amica, what is striking is the brazenness that culminates in threats via PEC to impose ‘sanctions’ of 300,000 euros – based on the caveats in the regulations of each ‘agrimarket’ – on farmers who dare to participate in markets organized by others.
Coldiretti’s Agromafie Observatory-whose scientific committee., chaired by Gian Carlo Caselli, includes among others the attorney general and 5 counselors and of the Supreme Court, the honorary deputy president and 3 counselors of the Council of State, 11 prosecutors and deputy prosecutors of the Republic, the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor and 5 deputies, 9 other magistrates, 13 former magistrates, 2 generals and 8 senior officers of the Carabinieri Corps, 4 senior officers of the GdF and Revenue Agency, 5 among prefects, former prefects and quaestors, 5 MiPAAF executives including the chief inspector of ICQRF, etc. – would therefore have his work cut out for him, if only there was the intention.
Tax evasion. The second state
Farms that participate in Coldiretti’s farmer markets pay for the costs of market participation through services curiously removed from the application of 22 percent VAT. Sometimes receipts are issued that appear to have no fiscal value, sometimes not even those. Although farmers pay for services and/or goods (e.g., tags where they write the prices), even through bank transfers. How come?
System officials allege that the disapplication of tax rules is due to the status of Campagna Amica, a foundation, or that of Agrimarket associations. They have direct control over farm accounting and trust that they are operating in a second state, governed by Palazzo Rospigliosi, where the application of Italian and EU regulations is not always a given. (7)
In the Italian state as in other EU member states, however, third sector entities are also subject to VAT when they carry out commercial activities. Even when such activities are aimed at members. And ‘shall in all cases be considered commercial, even if exercised by entities,’ the activities of ‘managing fairs and exhibitions of a commercial nature. (8)
Is the law the same for everyone? #CleanSpades
Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Legislative Decree. 228/01, Agricultural Guidance and Modernization. Text updated as of 10/13/20 on Normattiva, https://bit.ly/3zXO87j.
‘Individual or associated farmers who are registered in the business registry under Art. 8 of Law Dec. 29, 1993, no. 580, may sell directly at retail, throughout the territory of the Republic, products predominantly from their farms. (…) the same persons may also sell directly at retail throughout the territory of the Republic agricultural products and foodstuffs, belonging to one or more agronomic compartments other than the products of their own farm, provided that they are directly purchased from other agricultural entrepreneurs‘ (Article 4, Exercise of sales activity)
(2) Dario Dongo. Campaign Friendly-whose? #CleanSpades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6/19/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/campagna-amica-di-chi-vanghepulite
(3) Dario Dongo, Francesca Coli. Direct sales, access to markets without membership constraints. Council of State pronouncement. FARE(Food and Agriculture Requirements). 25.1.20, https://www.foodagriculturerequirements.com/archivio-notizie/vendita-diretta-accesso-ai-mercati-senza-vincoli-associativi-la-pronuncia-del-consiglio-di-stato
(4) The statutes of the ‘Agrimercato’ associations of Brescia, Milan Lodi e Brianza, Cremona, Parma, and the ‘Veronatura’ Consortium (VR) are cited as examples.
(5) See notes 1 and 7 to the article cited in note 2. See also the critical analysis on unfair trade practices and the European delegation law https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/pratiche-commerciali-sleali-e-legge-di-delegazione-europea-analisi-critica
(6) See previous article TAR Lazio’s trio on CAAs. Freelancers readmitted https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/tris-del-tar-lazio-sui-caa-riammessi-i-liberi-professionisti
(7) A dozen-million-euro tax fraud and/or evasion was also carried out with the CAI Real Estate S.r.l. operation, it is recalled (see. article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/federconsorzi-2-cai-real-estate-srl-evasione-o-frode-fiscale-milionaria-vanghepulite). But there are no reports of any challenges by the Lazio Region Internal Revenue Service to Coldiretti’s magic circle
(8) Presidential Decree 633/72, Establishment and regulation of value added tax. Text updated 7/24/21 on Normattiva, https://bit.ly/3tApOWT. See Article 4, paragraphs 4 and 5
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
