The Italian confederation of direct farmers Coldiretti highlighted today that the Covid-19 emergency boosted purchases of organic products seven percent in 2021, given the desire for health and safety of consumers.

In terms of values, this meant a record of 7.5 billion euros, the agri-food entity specified, citing analysis of the data bank of biological products (Biobank), which, it added, reflect that sales in the last decade of uninterrupted growth were of 122 percent.

From 2020 to 2021 there was an increase in all spending channels, from supermarkets, higher than 4.3 percent, to stores, higher than 7.8 percent; including other alternative channels, such as farmers’ markets, which increased by four percent.

Coldiretti also commented that Italy is the first European country for the number of companies dedicated to organic farming with 70 thousand producers and two million hectares of cultivated land.

In this sense, he valued the convenience of the approval of the national organic law, which provides for the introduction of a brand for this type of products obtained from completely national raw materials.

Likewise, it will regulate the use of digital platforms to guarantee complete information on the origin, quality and traceability of the products and the institutional review of the regulations on controls and guarantees of the autonomy of the certification bodies.

The impulse towards purchases of organic products is also associated, in Coldiretti’s opinion, with the rise of farmers’ markets in the so-called kilometer zero indicated by 73 percent of Italians as the place to buy again, from a greater desire to recover or maintain the direct consumer-farm relationship.

This is possible thanks to the fact that Italy is the country in the European Union with the largest organized network of farmers’ markets with 12,000 farmers involved in some 1,200 Campagna Amica farmers’ markets, the source noted.

Source: Prensa Latina