It could be called DOPeconomy, or that particular sector of the made in Italy agri-food sector which concerns the 800 labels of protected denomination and geographical origin (DOP and IGP, to be clear, which count 285 recognized protection consortia and 180.000 operators) and which is now worth 20% of the entire Italian food market, as well as representing absolute excellence in terms of quality. The boom is certified by the XVII Ismea-Qualivita Report which, in its analysis of 2018 production data, records further growth in the Food and Wine DOP IGP sector, with a production value that for the first time exceeded 16,2 billion euros (+6% in one year) and with exports that cross the threshold of 9 billion euros (+2,5% and more than tripled since 2008).
Separating the Food and Wine data, it can be seen that the most remarkable performance is that of wine: if Food in fact grows by 3,8% exceeding 7 billion in value of production, Wine exploded in 2018 by almost 8% , touching the 9 billion euro of production value and above all with an export reach 5,4 billion euros (+3,5%) out of a total of 6,2 billion for Italian wine as a whole. The DOP and IGP wines now represent 74% of total Italian wine exports in volume and 87% in value. Other interesting data: as far as food is concerned, one third of exports in value are towards Non-EU countries (33%), while the main markets are confirmed Germany (20%), USA (18%) and France (15%).
The data that emerges from the Ismea-Qualivita Report and which makes us most proud is however another: today, more than one product out of four registered as DOP, IGP, TSG in the world is Italian. In fact, at the end of 2019 Italy confirmed the world record for the number of products certified with 824 PDO, PGI, TSG in the Food and Wine sectors out of a total of 3.071. In 2019 Italy also reached the threshold of 300 PDO, PGI, STG Food products: this is also a world record (the second country is France with 251 Food GI products).
