FOOD- ITALY AS LEADER FOR PDO AND PGI PRODUCTS

Italy is said to be a country of Saints, poets, sailors….but even producers of products with denomination of origin. According to the socio- economic observatory of Qualivita( quality life) which presented the Qualivita Atlantis, containing all the certified products, Italy is the European leader as number of PDO, PGI and ISG with 175 denominations, 13% more than two years ago, before Spain(121) and France(160). These numbers do not always show a success according to this observatory launching a warning: 90% the sales and 93% production in this field is given to the first 15 products(PDO-PGI) the remaining 160 products collect only some little parts of a sector gaining € 5.5 milliard per year for production and 10 milliard for the consumption; this sector has never stopped, but it has represented an input for the other made- in- Italy products to be launched in the foreign market. For the third year the top- product is Grana Padano covering 37,6% sales of its sector. The Grana is followed in this list by Parmigiano Reggiano and Prosciutto di Parma. The real 2008’s novelty, according to the Atlantis is the so-called” apple-effect”, that is to say the Trentino Alto Adige success. This reached the third place in the list of the Regions thanks to its certified apples: Alto Adige ‘PDO Apple’ and ‘Val di Non PDO apple’. Emilia Romagna is the region with more certified products, followed by Lombardy. As for the provinces, this “apple-effect” can’t defeat the city of Parma, involving a lot of certified products even if after Parma we find the homeland of the “forbidden fruit”, Bolzano, before Udine and Trento. Among the successful cases there aren’t only Northern areas. Even South Italy has good places in the Atlantis: which exported 80% of the total certified production in 2007, with a 90 % export increase compared to the previous year. The Atlantis Qualivita, ”means of scientific divulgation of Food-sector”, can be found even in book- shops as founder of a new Qualivita collection.