Farmers marching at the Brenner Pass against the invasion of foreign products

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On the trucks entering Italy from the Brenner Pass, together with the police, they found Danish pork legs headed for Modena which risk becoming local hams, Indian grapes shipped to Novara, South African fruit coming from Moldavia headed for Sicily and preparations industrial egg-based products made in Poland and expected in Verona. And it is to protest against this invasion of foreign agri-food products that since Monday 8 April thousands of Coldiretti farmers – 10 thousand according to the organization – have gathered at Km 1 of the Brenner motorway. The picket against “Fake in Italy” at the table will also continue on Tuesday 9th. “We have come up here to Brenner to report an identity theft that is taking place against us” said yesterday the president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, who from the stage set up on site he relaunched the theme of the label of European origin. «Brenner – he added – is a highly symbolic place for the passage of fake made in Italy products that invade our market, and it is from here that we relaunch our battle on the transparency of origin on the label, asking that it be a priority of the new Commission and the new Parliament after the European elections”. To put a stop to the invasion of foreign food often sold as national, Coldiretti has in fact announced the start of a collection of signatures for a popular initiative European law proposal, which will lead to the extension of the indication of origin on the label to all products marketed in the European Union.

Among the products discovered during the checks are 25 thousand kilos of Austrian milk headed to Brescia, 23 thousand kilos of pears from Belgium headed to Taranto, onions from Eastern Europe shipped to Parma, cheeses with an Italian name made in Northern Europe, Dutch tulips in trip to Verona, 21 thousand kilos of Nordic potatoes shipped to Crotone, 22 thousand kilos of German curd headed to Benevento and a truck loaded with wheat without any traceability. «They told us that today at Brenner we would not find trucks entering the area carrying agri-food products as we had found them in past years – said Prandini – unfortunately the facts have shown exactly the opposite. Too many foreign products become Italian by crossing our borders.” According to a Coldiretti/Ixè survey, the majority of Italian citizens would support this battle: over eight consumers out of 10 (83%) would ask for a stop to imports of agri-food products that do not respect the same rules regarding safety as Italian ones food, environmental and labor protection.

The collection of signatures for the indication of origin on the label also aims to bring transparency to those products which are still anonymous today and which represent around a fifth of Italians’ spending, such as bread for example, but also crackers and biscuits, which, unlike pasta, do not have the obligation to indicate the origin of the grain used. The origin label is not compulsory even for legumes, pickles, fresh-cut vegetables and fruit – i.e. those in trays ready to be consumed – walnuts, shelled pistachios, rabbit meat and horse meat. . The mobilization at Brenner also represents a response to the ruling of the EU Court of Auditors in the Audit concluded last December regarding the Italian decrees on origin labeling for pasta, rice, tomato derivatives, milk and cheeses and cured meats, which are were considered obstacles to free trade.

«The Government is constantly committed to protecting the true Made in Italy in the agri-food sector – said the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida yesterday – whoever protests will always find us in line with them in the request to carry out more checks. At a European level we have proposed creating an observatory on price transparency, asking that in the EU there are clear rules to protect our producers and our products, up to the person who consumes and purchases”.