“In 2023, Cambodia saw its exports to Italy increase by 67%, while India even almost doubled its sales to our country (+92%). The agreements with these countries penalize Italian rice”. The alarm is raised Coldirettispecifically Roberto Guerrini, member of the board of Coldiretti Piedmont with territorial delegation to the rice sector, at the end of the supply chain meeting held in Rome at the Ministry of Agriculture, in the presence of the minister Francesco Lollobrigida and the undersecretary Patrizio Giacomo La Pietra, with the participation of the president of Coldiretti Piedmont and member of the national council, Cristina Brizzolari.
“Too often – points out Roberto Guerrini – Italian rice is sacrificed in relation to trade agreements with countries which do not respect the same production standards as European ones and which exploit the benefits to flood the EU market with quality products low quality which causes the prices of the national one to collapse. It is important – he underlines – set up the rice table to defend our producers from the Asian invasion“.
The use of pesticides is also a concern: “Rice coming from Asia – underlines Guerrini – is very often grown using tricyclazole, a powerful pesticide banned in the European Union since 2016”.
“Coldiretti Precisely for this scenario it asks to establish the principle of reciprocity, ensuring that all products entering the European Union respect the same standards regarding environmental protection and respect for workers’ rights followed by Italian rice growers – explain Cristina Brizzolari, president of Coldiretti Piedmont, and Bruno Rivarossa, confederal delegate -. It is also necessary to follow up on the European Parliament’s choice to maintain the automatic safeguard clause in the revision of the regulation to trigger the duty when quantities of rice exceed a certain threshold compared to the previous year”.
Most of the rice production is concentrated in Piedmont, at Italian level, with 8 million quintals, approximately 1900 for a total of 117 thousand hectares. 60% of the product imported into Italy benefits from tariff concessions but if we consider only the Asian one, the percentage rises to 97%.
