Agri-food, Italian exports are growing: +14% in one year

2024 marks a new peak for exports of food made in Italy, with a growth of 14% in January compared to the same month of the previous year, despite international tensions, with wars and blockades hindering trade transits. To explain it is aColdiretti analysis based on Istat data, which photographs the trend of the food sector, in contrast to the general trend of exports, which recorded a decline of 0.2%, while the GDP slowed down.

Among the main purchasing countries, the most significant growth is overseas, on the US market, which ranks as the first non-EU outlet, with a 31% increase in Italian food sales. Also doing well, with a double-digit increase Great Britain (+26%). The national agri-food sector is also confirmed in Germany (+9%) and in France, where a +3% is recorded. Among other markets, noteworthy is the growth of 52% in China and 14% in Russia. The result confirms the historic record set in 2023, for a value that exceeded 64 billion euros, according to Coldiretti analysis.

The results are driven, the study hypothesizes, by a national agriculture that is among the greenest in Europe, with the EU leadership in organic with 80 thousand operators, the largest number of recognized Dop/Igp/Stg specialties (325), 526 Dop/Igp wines and 5547 traditional food products. Italy is also the leading EU producer of rice, durum wheat and many vegetables typical of the Mediterranean diet such as tomatoes, aubergines, artichokes, celery and fennel. And also with regards to fruit: from apples and pears to cherries to table grapes, from kiwis to hazelnuts and chestnuts.