Hundreds of farmers attended the Coldiretti demonstration in Cagliari, organized to defend Made in Italy products amid the crisis caused by rising costs and prices linked to the war in Iran.
Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida was also at the Viale Diaz Fair: "There's a lot of concern about the crisis. We're addressing it by supporting businesses, especially agricultural ones. Italy is one of the few countries that maintains incentives for agricultural diesel."
Other issues, says the government official, are European in nature: "The cost of fertilizers is rising exponentially. As an EU, we are lagging behind on the food sovereignty initiative relaunched by the government, which plans to equip itself with tools to overcome crises like the one caused by the closure of the Hormuz pipeline."
According to the minister, there's a priority among priorities: "Europe must do one thing immediately: remove the crazy taxes imposed on some products we don't have, like fertilizers. We already asked for this in January. We asked for European spending to be loosened. In extraordinary times like this, we need to intervene to help our businesses survive."
Also at the demonstration was Coldiretti's national president, Ettore Prandini. Regarding the crisis linked to the war in Iran, he noted that "Sardinia is an island, but we cannot allow it to be isolated; this is something we must pay attention to." Why? "Sardinia faces major logistics challenges, and this requires addressing with national measures to support transportation and with territorial measures, given that it is a region with a special statute." Therefore, "incentivizing the reduction of logistics costs will enable the entire Sardinian agri-food system to be more competitive." How? Also, "by eliminating some illogical taxes on maritime transport, which is currently the only means Sardinia has for reaching the continent and moving goods around Europe and the world."
For Coldiretti's regional president, Battista Cualbu, the issue of conflict-related price increases "is global, but it also affects Sardinia. We are grateful for the work done, but there is still much to do. It's impossible to compete because our region suffers from its insular status and the problems associated with transporting both people and goods."