It starts again the production of Italian rice after years of recession. According to data provided by the Risi body, around 220 hectares were sown this year. This is equivalent to saying that in all probability the figure of 1.240.000 tons of raw rice produced in recent years will be exceeded. Important news for our agricultural economy. Italy is in fact the first European producer of rice, the most consumed cereal in the world and alone produces more than 50% of the rice grown in Europe, followed by Spain, at various lengths, which stands at 35 percent. In our country there are 4.100 farms that employ around 10 people. The production value is 450 million euros and the sale of the finished product is approximately 1 billion euros. Of the million tons of milled rice 35% is absorbed by the domestic market, the rest is exported both European and non-European, especially in Turkey, which greatly appreciates Italian quality.
But alongside these extremely positive data, which emerged on the occasion of the inauguration of the rice cluster at Expo, it must also be said that for some time now, Italian rice has been facing the pitfall of foreign product imports, especially from the Cambodia, and from the republic of Myanmar which does not offer the same guarantees as our rice and which sees consumers unable to protect themselves because of non-transparent regulations it is not mandatory to indicate the origin of the product on the label.
It follows that Italians are often convinced that they are eating a genuine Made in Italy product while they are served an oriental rice in some cases grown with the use of pesticides banned in Europe due to their high degree of toxicity. The phenomenon is not trivial and has taken on significant proportions in recent years not only from a commercial point of view but also from the point of view of health protection.
Everything comes from "Everything but Arms” (EBA), the unilateral EU solidarity plan of 2009, according to which Europe has liberalized imports of all products – excluding arms – arriving from less developed countries. A noble cause to help countries plagued by disastrous economies and in some cases governed by corrupt and incompetent political classes. Conversely, the effects have proved disastrous for our rice cultivation which is unable to counter the strong offensive of the competition from Cambodia and Myanmar and even if in more limited quantities from Laos and Bangladesh, due to the very competitive prices of the imported product. In the long run, the phenomenon can cause serious damage to our production and to all related industries that revolve around the world of Italian rice, appreciated all over the world.
A study by the Ministry of Economic Development confirms that “the evolution of zero-duty imports from Cambodia has taken on proportions that compromise the correct functioning of the common organization of the market. Cambodian competition has in fact reduced the market prices of raw rice of the "indica" type produced in the European Union below production costs, consequently causing a first significant contraction of the areas sown in 2014 (about 22% in less). The persistent increase in imports from Cambodia, as well as from Myanmar, continues to create pressure on the EU market resulting in a further reduction in the prices of raw rice and a disincentive to grow this type of rice”.
A serious damage which, however, no longer finds justification in the humanitarian reasons from which the EBA plan started, because in recent years it has happened that in the shadow of the Everything But Arms agreement some multinationals, sensing the deal, have established themselves in less advanced countries and by hoarding land they have started rice cultivation at low cost, since in those countries labor protections are often ignored and the use of chemical products which have been banned for decades in the Italian and European countryside is widespread.
It is clear at this point that it cannot be postponed the adoption of measures to protect Made in Italy rice, appreciated for its quality, typicality and sustainability which must be defended, among other things by introducing the obligation to indicate the origin on the label, the advertising of the names of the industries that use foreign rice so that the consumer is able to make purchases aware of the genuineness of the product.
