ROME: Italian food product exports towards the US and China have risen by 29% those to EU nations by 9.7%, according to the agricultural association Coldiretti.
The announcement was made on the basis of data from the Italian national statistics institute ISTAT on foreign trade in June. Since the beginning of Expo Milano 2015, Italian food product exports already saw +29.3% in the US in May and +57% in China, and rose by 5% even in the stagnant EU market. ”At the global level,” Coldiretti said, ”Italian agro-food exports in the first two months of the Expo (May and June) rose by a record 7% due to the economic recovery, the more favorable exchange rate and the spur given by the Expo.”
‘The result is even more encouraging if we take into consideration the drop in shipping to Russia after the embargo, which affected significant parts of the agro-food sector.” This led to a 26.9% drop in June and a 36% one of exports in May. Italy’s most exported agro-food product is wine, but sizeable quantities of fruit and vegetables, pasta and olive oil. Two-thirds of revenue is through the export of agro-food products to EU countries, though they are also strong in the US.”
Given these foreign trade results, agro-food is probably – alongside tourism – the sector that is benefiting the most from the Expo,” said Coldiretti chief Roberto Moncalvo. ”It serves as a unique opportunity to enable foreign consumers to compare the original products with the ‘fraudulent’ ones circulating in many countries.”
