Roundup: Italy sets up rules to help protect domestic pasta, rice makers
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E-mail Xinhua, July 23, 2017
By Eric J. Lyman
ROME, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Italy this week introduced a two-year measure requiring producers of rice and pasta to include information about where the product came from, a move aimed at helping to protect domestic producers from low-cost foreign competition.
The European Union prohibits countries from erecting protective tariffs on foreign products that compete with domestic rivals. But this step will leave it in the hands of consumers to decide whether they prefer home-grown products over those from other countries.
Italy is the first European country to pass such a law, though media reports indicate similar measures have been debated in the past in France, Spain, and Portugal, among others.
Maurizio Martina, Italy's minister of agricultural, food, and forestry policies, called the move "historic" and said it would help consumers be more informed.
"We're giving consumers maximum transparency in a way that protects and strengthens domestic producers," Martina said.
Italian Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda agreed: "This ensures that shoppers can make a conscious choice," the minister said.
Martina and Calenda were among the political figures pushing hardest for the new decree, which was issued July 20 in Rome.
Companies will have 180 days from that date to assure that all the products they sell conform to the new rules, which focus on where the raw materials for the products were grown -- not where they were processed or packaged.
The new labeling rules could be a blow to wheat growers in the U.S. and Canada, which sell their production to Italian millers who process the wheat and make the pasta in Italy.
Imports of rice from Asia -- Vietnam and Cambodia are the biggest exporters to Italy -- will also have to be labeled as such.
Italy is European Union's largest producer of both pasta and rice, though much of the pasta is produced from imported wheat.
Italy produced about 1.5 million tons of rice from more than 4,000 companies cultivating 140 different varieties. But sales of domestic rice have fallen in all but one of the last six years, according to government figures, even as domestic rice has faced pricing pressure from low-cost imports.
"This is a gamble that consumers may be willing to pay more for products made start to finish in Italy," Andrea Magrini, a trade analyst with ABS Securities, told Xinhua.
"But it will increase costs for all producers, foreign and domestic, and some consumers may be surprised to find that their favorite products are not always made in Italy."
If a product is of mixed origin it must be reflected on the labeling. That is especially likely for pasta, where many companies use a mix of Italian and non-Italian durum wheat.
If that happens, the label can say the product is made from wheat grown in "Italy and in other EU countries" or in "Italy and other non-EU countries" or in "EU and non-EU countries" or any other combination for those categories.
Since Italy is the only EU country with such a law in place, companies that produce and package pasta and rice will have to decide whether to develop Italy-only labeling for their products or perhaps sell their products with the labeling required for Italy in other markets as well.
The measure will last for at least two years, at which point it could be removed if required by European Union-wide labeling rules set to enter into force. Enditem
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