Mauro Rosati, General Manager of Qualivita, the Foundation established in 2002 with the aim of enhancing the quality agri-food sector and therefore the PDO, PGI and TSG productions, which in recent years has become an international reference point in the sector of geographical indication products, is one of the leading experts in the agri-food world Italian thanks to a long experience linked to the institutions.
Journalist, expert in agricultural and agri-food policies, editor of periodical columns in the national press and television, Rai collaborator for Linea Verde and consultant for Occhio alla Spesa and Linea Verde Orizzonti. he has been involved in multiple activities such as the Qualivita Food & Wine Atlas, the Ismea-Qualivita Report, the online database Qualigeo.eu, Treccani Gusto, the DOP IGP System Enhancement initiative HO.RE.CA. with the collaboration of McDonald's Italia and much more.
Yours is therefore a privileged observatory for considering the state of health of the Italian sector of Geographical Indications.
“It is certainly a good state of health, he says, the sector today represents the spearhead not only of the agri-food sector but of the entire Italian economy. A business card capable of giving credit to the Italy it produces, a genuine and strong representation of our territories, an emblem of the quality that has always distinguished Made in Italy”.
He has been dealing with IG for many years now. And an opinion on the sector on what has been done and what has been missing for an even more performing path in the sector is substantially positive, albeit with some reservations.
“Paradoxically, he says, contrary to other sectors which claim a delay in politics, this sector, at a national and above all European level, has enjoyed an excellent, in some ways far-sighted, policy. On the other hand, an entrepreneurial agricultural vision was lacking, the great entrepreneurs were missing or they arrived a little late. However, I believe that this gap can be filled, as demonstrated by the important investments made by various companies in recent years. An interesting case is, for example, balsamic vinegar, a product that can look to exports with conviction and become global. Such cases can act as a driving force and represent an asset for the entire agricultural sector and for the national economy”.
It is legitimate to wonder, as some do, if there are too many Italian GIs, if the number is the right one. For Rosati, distinctions must be made: “There are IG with important economic values, significant turnover, which for this reason require special attention, streamlined procedures, to keep up with the markets, especially international ones, and to the problems that agriculture brings with it today, due to climate and so on. And this is the flagship level. Then there are individuals who, despite having a negligible critical mass, still deserve GI recognition due to their history, tradition, quality and passion. Finally, there are situations where there is no production base interested in making certified production and it is in this case that the GIs would have no reason to exist. In any case, we are talking about 20 or at most 30 IGs”.
The merit of the director of Qualivita goes to the fact that he was one of the few who managed to create a concept of "network" in a sector that presents several anomalies.
“Consortia, as we know them – he maintains – exist only in Italy and this already puts us in a very different point of view compared to other nations. So from this point of view the consortia represent an important spearhead for the functioning and success of the system. Then that more can and should be done goes without saying. But if we analyze the cases that exist in Italy, even in the world of wine, it is easy to see how GIs exist where there are consortia that work well; otherwise we find ourselves faced with some company that tries to drive the rest, but in doing so the rural development effect of a territory is lost”.
Almost twenty years of commitment along a road with an ever forward look are not a few. There were undoubtedly very gratifying moments that made you think “ok, we are on the right track”.
One of these can be identified on the occasion of the presentation of Qualigeo, in 2006 when a group of farmers from the Caserta area came to Rome bringing the Annurca apples for which they had just obtained the IGP certification. “Small producers who, he recalls with satisfaction, together with the top management of their consortium, told me: “Look Mauro, one of the reasons why we have managed to obtain the IGP today is because, after so many initiatives over the years, thanks to Qualivita we understood which was the right path to pursue”. And that signal, from that difficult territory, made by small producers, was the greatest thanksgiving, the greatest emotion that I can remember in these 18 years of work".
This is for the past, but other programs are on the calendar, and some projects are as ambitious as they were when the Qualivita adventure started. “In the Qualivita calendar – he announces – there is the desire to be able to connect the various tourist projects of the consortia from a system perspective. The Italian tourist system needs distance yourself from a series of representations related to food and wine that are false historians, such as many festivals. In fact, only some of these can be said to be truthful, linked to the products, with cultural and educational purposes. My idea, also with a view to transforming Mipaaf into a merger with tourism, is to bring Qualivita to be the subject that brings together the tourist world of GIs, hospitality, direct sales and all the projects born in recent years , from those conceived by the world of wine, which was the first, to many other initiatives set up by consortia (open dairies, open vinegar factories, etc.). Therefore binding experiential tourism and products in a single project, giving depth and distinguishability to the whole”.
