Italian Farmers Association laments first Brexit effects

Purchases of Italian products in the UK have fallen by 3.3%, with a 7% cut in food imports, a 7.3% reduction in the automotive sector and a 13.9% one in textiles, all of them blamed on the "Brexit effect", which seems to have hit some of the signature Made-in-Italy product categories.

The figures, based on an analysis of the February data by ISTAT, the Italian national statistical institute, were published by Coldiretti, the Italian Farmers Association, on the day the EU guidelines for Brexit negotiations were formally and unanimously approved.

"What is also worrying is the new kind of protectionism which is encouraged by a plethora of technical legislation, a de facto barrier to the free circulation of goods," said Coldiretti President Roberto Moncalvo, who underlined how "for example, 90% of UK supermarkets have already adopted a `traffic light´ food labelling system, though an infringement procedure has already been activated by the EU. The system, said Moncalvo, unfairly blackballs nearly 85% of [food products] with an Italian certificate of origin (DOP), the same products the EU instead ought to protect and promote."

Among the hardest hit are the three most popular Italian DOP specialities - both domestically and abroad - Grana and Parmesan cheese and Parma ham, but also extra-virgin olive oil, regarded as the symbol of the Mediterranean diet. The `traffic light´ system's objective is to reduce consumption of fat, saturates, salt and sugar but, according to Coldiretti, it is not based on the amounts actually consumed but simply on the generic presence of certain substances.