Italy's agro-food industry is seeking to harness Rome's appeal as an international capital of art, culture, business and cuisine to help it reach the four corners of the globe. The Federalimentare confederation has decided to hold what will be the world's biggest trade fair devoted to quality Italian food products in the capital next April.
The fair, entitled Cibus Roma, aims to help the sector reach new markets and beef up exports to those it has already won over.
"The Eternal City is the ideal setting from which to catapult the Italian agro-food sector onto international markets," Federalimentare President Luigi Rossi di Montelera told ANSA. "The capital's appeal is famous all over the world so it lends itself very well to attracting the attention of the
main sector operators".
The debut edition of Cibus Roma will take place April 14-17 at the city's plush new trade-fair centre, which was inaugurated recently.
From then on the biannual event will take turns with the traditional Cibus fair, which has been running every other year for a quarter of a century in another mecca of fine Italian cuisine - Parma. Although Cibus Roma will be orientated primarily to firms and professionals in the trade, organizers have stressed that there will be lots of related promotional events and gastronomy-tasting sessions for the public.
"It's great to know that this event will be one of the first initiatives held at Rome's new trade-fair centre," said the capital's mayor, Walter Veltroni.
"Rome is becoming a key location for the agro-food sector, a city that brings together tradition and innovation".
Rossi di Montelera believes the new fair will provide a lift for business in southern Italy and the whole of the Mediterranean region too. The Federalimentare boss highlighted the great potential of southern Italy's agro-food sector, which boasts an array of superb food products and wines. Many of these have been given special EU marks testifying they are quality, traditional products in order to protect them from cheap,
foreign imitations.
But he called for greater levels of investment, so southern Italy can realize this potential and catch up with the rest of the nation.
"At the moment there is a grave deficit in terms of the amount of research conducted in the south, which is not the case in the rest of the country," said Rossi di Montelera, whose confederation represents 6,700 businesses with a combined turnover of 107 billion euros.
"There is great potential in terms of production, but there is a lack of processing plants. The local businesses and the regional governments must take action to solve this problem". Rossi di Montelera explained that a lack of trained personnel in the south is another issue, one which is linked
to the scarcity of big agro-food companies in the area.
"Our confederation collaborates with research bodies and takes great care to support businesses with research and development," he said.
"In the northern region of Piedmont, 80% of (sector) research is carried out by private companies. This does not happen in the south and, I repeat, this is because there are not many big companies." In November the organizers of Cibus are teaming up with the Vinitaly wine fair to stage a major event promoting the country's agro-food sector in China.
'Vinitaly e Cibus in China' takes place in Shangai November 23-26.
