In a macroeconomic scenario conditioned by the energy and climate crisis, the Italian Dop economy once again shows a positive picture marked by record values. The PDO and PGI sector, finds the XXI Ismea-Qualivita report, flies beyond the threshold of 20 billion euros of production value in 2022 (+6.4% on an annual basis), ensuring a contribution of 20% to the overall turnover of the Italian agri-food. Within the sector, the food sector is close to 9 billion euros (+9%), while the wine sector exceeds 11 billion euros (+5%). Important results, although partly conditioned by the inflationary pressure, which demonstrate the great solidity of the national Dop economy: an organized system, which has 296 protection consortia authorized by the ministry of agriculture and over 195,000 companies in the food and wine supply chains, with a of employment relationships estimated for the first time at 580 thousand units in the agricultural phase and 310 thousand in the transformation phase.

The report also highlights a leap forward in exports which, in 2022, thanks to the contribution of the two components food and wine, will reach 11.6 billion euros (+8% on 2021), representing 19% of the turnover of the national agri-food sector abroad. The food supply chain achieves a turnover of 4.7 billion euros, showing a +6% in one year and a +66% in the decade, mainly due to the recovery of non-EU markets (+10%). The wine sector is close to 7 billion euros, recording a progression of +10% compared to 2021 and +80% compared to 2012 (+116% considering only PDO wines). The DOP and IGP wines represent almost 90% of the exports of Italian wineries in value.

The estimates developed for the first time indicate, in the agricultural sector, a number of fixed-term employee relationships equal to 430 thousand (of which 211 thousand in wine and 219 thousand in food) and 50 thousand permanent ones (of which 20 thousand in wine and 30 thousand in food), to which must be added just under 100 thousand self-employed workers, including agricultural entrepreneurs and direct farmers.

In the industrial phase, the IG system generates over 250 thousand permanent employment relationships (of which 210 thousand in food and 43 thousand in wine) and approximately 60 thousand fixed-term or seasonal relationships (of which 45 thousand in food and 15 thousand in wine). It should be considered, in the overall evaluation, that the data refers to the number of employment relationships, which is higher than the actual number of employees, due to the possibility for a worker to have contracts with multiple companies.

The four regions of the North-East alone concentrate over half (55%) of the national value of PDOs and PGIs - with Veneto and Emilia-Romagna confirming themselves as the top regions overall in terms of economic value - showing growth of almost + 6% on 2021. In relative terms, however, it is the North-West that presents the greatest increase (+12%), driven by Piedmont and Lombardy, the region with the highest growth in 2022 (+318 million euros). Central Italy, led by Tuscany, marks a +4%, while the "South and Islands" area, after the important increases recorded in 2020 and 2021, advances by a further +3%, with a contribution above all from Campania (+9%), Sardinia (+19%) and Abruzzo (+9%).