Emilia Romagna gains the European record for the number of food PDOs and PGIs (44) with one turnover of over 3.6 billion. +2.2% for the food and beverage industry and 692.5 million euros paid by the Region to businesses, over 98 million from the regional budget. These are the numbers from the 2023 agri-food report presented today in Bologna.
A framework conditioned by heavy weather and climate factors last year and which nevertheless recorded growth in the food and beverage industry, in exports with a value of over 9,700 million euros in 2023 and in employment. During 2023 the value of agricultural production of Emilia-Romagna suffered a 9.2% downsizing with a loss of almost 550 million euros and revenues that went from almost 5.9 billion in 2022 to 5.3 billion in 2023.
The origin of this trend is the substantial drop in field productiondetermined by the adverse weather that characterized much of the year with drought, late frosts and the flood that devastated much of the territory of Romagna, compromising many crops.
The value of the very strong Dop and Igp products to which a production value of almost 4 billion euros was attributed, between food products (3.5 billion) and wines (455 million), equal to approximately 40% of the national total.
The picture is taken from the 2023 agri-food report, presented this morning in Bologna, which highlights a fundamental economic system for Emilia-Romagna, capable of holding and evolving. The analysis was carried out in collaboration between the Region (Agriculture and agri-food, hunting and fishing department) and Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna, with the contribution of Art-ER.
At the proceedings, opened by the regional councilor for Agriculture, Alessio Mammi, attended, among others, Giuseppe Molinaripresident of the Modena Chamber of Commerce, and Guido Caselli (Unioncamere Emilia-Romagna).
“Emilia-Romagna it’s a laboratory called to face important challenges and the strong agri-food vocation of the territory, – state the president, Stefano Bonaccinie the councilor, Alessio Mammi – puts us in front of transversal dynamics due not only to climate change and the issue of sustainability, but also to new consumer choices, evolving markets and the ability to combine quality with advanced digital technologies. To address all this, the Region stands alongside the entire sector, to consolidate and grow its positioning on the markets, enhance regulated quality products and strengthen an agriculture that increasingly must combine support for business income and sustainability”.
Joseph Molinari declared that “capacity is the key to understanding that this year’s agri-food report gives us: as an image of the sector in Emilia-Romagna, in a year forever marked by the flood. Ability to innovate, cultivate the skills to understand changes in customers in every part of the world, managing new value chains in supply and distribution. The value of the agri-food sector is the result of this determination, of companies that are the first to experience the effects of climate change and which must be able to. always be in a position to transform their work into unique excellence, safety and quality every day”.
The photograph of the agri-food system of Emilia-Romagna highlights the dynamics and insights in the sectors of production, processing and foreign trade of agricultural and food products and is accompanied by analyses on the future of the sector in light of the flood events of May last year that hit the agricultural and processing sectors hard.
The most significant data see the growth in 2023 in production activity in the food and beverage industry: +2.2%, with 4,604 active agri-food companies. Emilia-Romagna’s exports of agri-food products exceeded 9,700 million euros, 15.7% of what Italy sold abroad.
The payments carried out by the Region during 2023 amount to approximately 700 million euros. Of these, 98.2 million come from the regional budget.
The other payments are divided as follows: 323 million direct payments from the Community Agricultural Policy, 154 million from funds from the Rural Development Programme/Rural Development Complement, 120 million from the part financed by the Common Market Organisation, among which fruit and vegetables stand out for 95.4 and wine for 22.3 million.
The report will be available on the Region’s portal on the dedicated page.
Source: Emilia-Romagna Region
