Sardinia, together with Tuscany, risks being the Italian region most exposed to "million-dollar losses" in the trade war that could open in conjunction with the duties announced by US President Donald Trump.

The red alert was raised by a study presented today by Cia-Agricoltori Italiani at the confederation's tenth economic conference in Rome.

The risk, farmers warn, "could be enormous" . Agri-food exports to the US have in fact grown by 158% in ten years and today the United States represents the second reference market in the world for Made in Italy food and wine, with 7.8 billion euros achieved in 2024.

From the CIA data it emerges, as mentioned, that the most exposed region will be Sardinia (where over 90% of Pecorino Romano PDO is produced) whose agri-food exports end up in the United States for 49% (and, inevitably, 74% of the exports of dairy products from the island also end up there).

In second place for greatest “exposure” in the US is Tuscany (28% of its agri-food exports, with oil in pole position with 42% and wines with 33% of the related exports). But 58% of Lazio's oil exports also end up in the United States, as do 28% of Abruzzo's pasta and baked goods exports and 26% of Campanian wines.

"We need strong diplomatic action to find a solution and not compromise the goals achieved so far", asks the national president of Cia, Cristiano Fini, who hopes for Italy to play a leading role in Europe to open negotiations with Trump. This is because, concludes Fini, Italy "has more to lose than others", given that the US is worth almost 12% of all our global agri-food exports , in which we are first in Europe with a very wide gap on Germany (2.5%), Spain (4.7%) and France (6.7%).

(Unioneonline/lf)