BARI – The Masaf agri-food control control forces (Customs Agency, Port Authority, Carabinieri, Quality Control and Fraud Suppression Inspectorate and Financial Police) begin carrying out checks on the merchant ship Alma flying the Maltese flag, but coming from Turkey, moored at the port of Bari, «loaded with wheat of “uncertain quality”.
The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced it on social media, specifying that there is “maximum alert and zero tolerance for products of dubious origin and quality arriving in Italy” regarding the operation. And, he concludes, “sampling and consequent laboratory analyzes are underway to verify the correct health parameters”.
The vessel had been defined as a “ghost ship” because no trace of it had been lost after it left Tunisia, from which it appears to have been rejected, then it touched the Greek coast and finally arrived in the port of Bari on 28 May.
COLDIRETTI: «CONTROLS ON THE SHIP WELL»
Coldiretti Puglia comments positively on the announcement made by the Minister for Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, on the checks carried out on the Alma ship flying the Maltese flag, moored in the port of Bari with a load of 26 thousand tonnes of wheat of Turkish origin. The checks – underlines a note – were decided after the raid by the farmers of Coldiretti who boarded the vessel in the open sea after it had been rejected by Tunisia.
According to the trade association, the Turkish auctions will involve “the export of over 75 thousand tons of wheat which will set sail around mid-June”. The consequence for Puglia is that “the comings and goings of merchant ships from Turkey” will continue in its ports, a country which has recorded, like “Russia and Kazakhstan in 2023, a strong increase in wheat exports compared to the previous year”. Coldiretti explains that “imports of durum wheat from Canada also increased by 47%”, a product which however is “treated with glyphosate, dangerous for the health of citizens”. «Unfair imports must be stopped, by decisively introducing the principle of reciprocity to ensure that all products entering the European Union respect the same standards from an environmental, health and labor standards point of view provided for in the internal market “, explains Alfonso Cavallo, president of Coldiretti Puglia, highlighting that “the survival of 38 thousand Apulian agricultural companies is at risk” due to “the dependence on the foreign market”.
For Coldiretti Puglia it is necessary to “work immediately within the Pnrr for supply chain agreements between agricultural and industrial companies and on fair prices that never fall below production costs, as required by the new law to combat unfair practices” For the agricultural organization, both the collaboration of the “Single National Commission (Cun) durum wheat” and “the promotion of 100% Italian pasta by supporting the entire supply chain” are important.
