The “Breakfast Directive” arrives against unfair imports from abroad which destroy Made in Italy honey with arrivals of low quality foreign products at rock-bottom prices, such as the Chinese one quoted just above the euro per kilogram, with Puglia having had to say goodbye to over 1 in 2 jars of honey due to the crazy climate, but the jam still has to wait for the mandatory labeling of the country’s origin for the fruit used, for which Coldiretti will continue to fight. This is what Coldiretti Puglia states, in relation to the results of the last plenary session of the European Parliament which definitively approved the provisional political agreement with the Council on the updated rules regarding the composition, naming, labeling and presentation of certain food products ” for breakfast”, i.e. the so-called “Breakfast Directive”.
“As hoped, the new rules – explains Coldiretti Puglia – will combat imports of adulterated honey from third countries through mandatory and clearly visible labeling of the country of origin and will start a process to create a honey traceability system. There will also be clearer labeling on the sugar content in fruit juices and on the minimum fruit content in jams and marmalades, but the mandatory indication of the origin of the fruit within them has not been established. In fact, it is limited to the presentation by the Commission of a report within 36 months of the entry into force of the directive, to evaluate the feasibility of introducing an obligation to label the origin of the country for the fruit used”.
An unsustainable procrastination that adds value to Coldiretti’s great mobilization with the aim of collecting one million signatures for a popular European initiative law to overcome the customs code and extend the obligation of the origin label on all food products on the market in the European Union.
Meanwhile, a halt has been put on unsustainable dumping to the detriment of 1,070 beekeeping companies in Puglia which take care of 32,000 hives and 13,000 swarms and produce numerous types of honey, from refined almonds to citrus fruits, from clementines to rosemary to thyme, up to cornflower, sulla, eucalyptus, coriander, clover and wildflower, with a significant growth in the presence of women and young people running beekeeping companies.
The collection of one million signatures – supported by signing in all the Campagna Amica markets and in the Coldiretti offices and promoted by a nofakeinitaly social campaign – with the proposed popular initiative to bring transparency to the agri-food chain is only the first step towards bringing the European Union to a change of perspective that supports food sovereignty, also leaving behind policies dictated by senseless green extremism.
Coldiretti first of all asks for the revision of the criterion of the last transformation of the Union Customs Code and of the place of origin, but it is also necessary to insist on the principle of reciprocity, in a situation in which food treated with substances and methods banned in Europe enters from the borders Countries that do not respect the same community regulations in terms of food safety, environmental and labor protection, unfair competition that damages European farmers who are also subjected to regulations and constraints that are often out of touch with reality.
