No longer tenors and sopranos, but the strength of a choir to give voice to the many qualities of the made in Italy agri-food. Four protection consortia – Chianti wine, Pasta di Gragnano Igp, Provolone Valpadana, Asti Docg wines – choose a post-pandemic restart as a team – which together represent around 4,800 companies and generate a turnover of nearly 1.8 billion euros. They have chosen to come together to outline the prospects of a pillar sector which, after the resilience test, is called to a new test of maturity on various fronts such as the interactive dialogue with young consumers and the presence of the British post market. Brexit, in addition to the opportunities opened by the Recovery and the European “Farm to fork” plan.
Among the issues, the need, advanced by the Provolone Valpadana protection consortium, to identify alternative channels for the enhancement of the PDO product to support the Ho.re.ca world: “In the emergency period – explained the president Libero Giovanni Stradiotti – companies associates have done their best to seek original solutions to offer to the final consumer, encouraging innovation, sustainability and delivery ». Massimo Menna, at the helm of the Consortium for the protection of Pasta di Gragnano Igp, the priority “is to strengthen the effectiveness of the consortium’s action in the promotion and protection activity for the benefit of the denomination, the consumer and our extraordinary gastronomic heritage which includes precisely the ‘the only dry pasta recognized in Europe as IGP ». A joint effort, Giacomo Pondini, the director of the Asti Docg Consortium, underlined, «to make contemporary and appealing also for young historical products in the wine scene and to recover the internal market. We must go back to being strong in Italy if we want to be credible abroad ». Common commitment, is the priority indicated by the president of the Chianti Consortium Giovanni Busi, it is a concrete reflection on the bureaucratic burden to which companies, whether small or large, are subjected ».
The first general rehearsal of this choral composition is a meeting, organized with the contribution of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, in Brusaporto (Bergamo) “Da Vittorio”, in homage to a territory strongly affected since the first phase of the health emergency and to the generosity of the chefs Enrico and Roberto Cerea, called Chicco and Bobo respectively, who did their utmost in the kitchens of the Bergamo field hospital. «In a pandemic year – underlined Enrico Cerea – the restaurant category has lost over 36% of its value, going back 20 years. The lesson it leaves us is that you win if you learn to play an orchestra, promoting not a single territory or product as much as our culture and lifestyle ».