A 40 million plan for the wheat-pasta supply chain

A strategic plan for the wheat / pasta supply chain that looks to 2030 and which has as priority areas supply chain contracts, investments on storage sites, research and innovation, price transparency, origin transparency, support for pasta communication in Italy and abroad, fight against food waste. The Minister of Agriculture, Teresa Bellanova, opened the meeting with the representatives of the wheat and pasta chain that took place in the afternoon at the ministry headquarters. On the table Bellanova immediately played an important card: 30 million to spend in three years starting in 2020 and another 10 for 2019 to be used for de minimis aid for wheat. The first funds have been allocated with the budget maneuver, the latter will be covered with savings on the Ministry budget. Bellanova explained that he had asked the structure to accelerate on previous payments, while as far as price is concerned "we are about to start testing for a national indicative price through the single Commission instrument while as far as transparency on origin is concerned we certainly do not want to do steps back from the obligation to indicate the origin of the grain on the label in force until 2020 ». According to the minister it is "a provision that guarantees transparent information to the consumer and can help to enhance the relationship between those who process and those who cultivate" and for this "I will soon meet the new European Commissioner for Health".

We will see. What is certain is that the Italian industry is moving towards developing certified product lines that use only wheat made in Italy. According to Coldiretti now "it is necessary to support the cultivation of durum wheat in Italy which has fallen below 4 million tons, a 5% reduction compared to 2018".