Italy boasts the world record of agri-food products and wines with registered geographical indications. Only 61 percent of the 822 registered products, however, have a website. This is what the 2018 PDO Report by Ismea and Qualivita reveals. Counterfeiting and Italian sounding, not surprisingly, are rampant.
AAA website wanted
Among the 320 Italian products with ‘Geographical Indication‘ (GIs) recognized, 3 of the 4 new entry 2018 are still without a website:
– Lucanica di Picerno IGP (pork-based sausage, Basilicata),
– Pitina IGP (meatball from Friuli),
– Marrone di Serino IGP (chestnut from Campania).
In contrast, Cioccolato di Modica IGP (Sicily)-the only chocolate in the world to benefit from this recognition-has its own website.
In the wine sector, consortia websites then tend to be poorly indexed on search engines. That is to say, typing the name of the DOC and DOCG wine, it is not easy to find the Consortium’s official website on the first page of search results. Investment in digital identity is therefore insufficient (or at least ineffective), even for the wines that express the highest production and export values. A few examples to follow.
Brunello di Montalcino. Production value (bulk) 72 million euros. Google search shows the Consortium site only on the second page of results. Where Italian excellence shares space along with such diverse wines as Rosso di Montalcino, Moscadello and Sant’Antimo.
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo PDO wine, production value 63 million euros, is presented on the consortium’s website along with Abruzzo PDO wines (Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo and Villamagna) on the generic website www.vinidabruzzo.it. It emerges only on the second page in keyword searches.
In contrast, Trentino PDO, while worth 51 million euros, is completely untraceable on the Web if searched by its name.
Italian PDOs and PGIs on the Web
The inattention of Italian PDO and PGI protection consortia to the Web is anachronistic. In fact, Big Data revealed by the DOP 2018 Report shows that Made in Italy food is celebrated on social networks (especially Instagram) on a planetary level. Photos and recipes are published mainly in the US, as well as in England, Germany, Brazil and Canada.
Top 100 Italian GIs have garnered 2.4 million citations. The most recalled products are in essence ‘the usual knowns’. Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, Grana Padano, Prosecco, Chianti, Barolo. Not surprisingly, even those most devoted to web communication.
I
social networks
are also poorly manned by the 275 protection consortia. Only 420 – out of 822, including wines – have at least one social profile (again, mostly on Instagram).
Web, protection from fakes and enhancement
Digital identity and
social
of Italian PDOs and PGIs is essential to share values related to traditions and territories, as well as to enable global consumers to distinguish fakes from original products. (1) Only in this way – as well as withevidence of the location of the establishment of production on the label-it will be possible to truly enhance our excellence.
Counterfeits and Italian sounding must be fought firstly with viral communication of reliable information about authentic products through the only tool that can truly reach all homes and smartphone of foodies global, the Web. Precisely because that is where the fakes are spread, from the wine kit To the unpunished German Cambozola. Not forgetting the products ‘
Please
‘ of Campbell’s, which caused a scandal at Expo 2015.
Counterfeits and controls
Controls on counterfeits and evocations of PDOs and PGIs in Europe, as has already been reported, are totally lacking. The Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, after all, has entrusted fraud to a ‘knowledge center’ under the Commissioner for Education and Culture (sigh!).
Economic partnership agreements brought forward by Brussels, after all, have been worth selling out the protection of our excellence. The Made in Italy has been betrayed, in theCETA agreement with Canada as in the JEFTA with Japan. Without opposition from either the Consortia – to whom we had also sent an open letter – or the current Italian government.
As for inspections in Italy, the 2018 DOP Report does not report the outcome of certifiers’ activities. Referring only to investigations carried out in official public audits, in the first 10 months of 2018. In detail:
– ICQRF (Central Inspectorate for the Protection of Quality and Fraud Repression of Agri-food Products), 9,616 production inspections, 47% irregular operators and 225 reports of crime.
– CUFAA (Forestry, Environmental and Agribusiness Unit Command, Carabinieri Corps), 304 enterprises inspected (at production), 15 criminal charges,
– RAC (Agribusiness Protection Command, Carabinieri Corps, formerly NAC), 399 enterprises inspected, 14 crime reports.
A 15.2 billion euro treasure
The Italian GIs sector involves more than 197,000 operators. In 2018, it exceeded 15.2 billion euros in production value (about 7 billion food and 8.3 billion wines), accounting for 18 percent of the total economic value of national agribusiness. Compared to the latter, the GI sector fared better (+2.6 percent compared to +2.1 percent total).
Domestic consumption increase in large-scale retail trade (GDO), +6.9% food (fixed weight) and +4.9% wine. And exports continue to grow, reaching 8.8 billion euros (+4.7 percent), or 21 percent of Italian agribusiness exports. Thanks also to the
ecommerce
, where, however, fraud also thrives unchecked.
Marta Strinati and Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) Our 8-language website was also created to promote qualified information about Italian food supply chains around the world. But the web, as it turns out, still garners little interest compared to the far more onerous ‘missions abroad.’
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
