Italy has confirmed its position as the country with the highest number of PDO, PGI and TSG certifications granted by the European Union (EU). At 31 December 2013, Italy had 261 quality-certified products (13 more than in 2012); of these, 252 were active.
The sectors with the highest number of certifications were fruit, vegetables and cereals (101 products), cheese (47), extra virgin olive oil (43) and meat preparations (37). Fresh meat and other sectors had a total of 5 and 28 specialities respectively.
The regions with the most PDO and PGI products were Emilia-Romagna and Veneto, with 39 and 36 products respectively.
In 2013, there were 80,435 certified operators, up by 204 units (+0.3%) from 2012. Of these, 91.2% were exclusively involved in production activities and 6.6% in product transformation; the remaining 2.2% performed both activities.
In the certification system, new certified operators (8,809) were slightly higher than exits (8,605).
Most certified operators continue to be men, with 80.7% of producers and 86% of transformers being male.
Among producers (75,156 units), whose number remained stable in comparison to 2012, the cheese sector was particularly highly represented (27,190 units, the equivalent of 36.2% of the total), along with olive oil (19,083 or 25.4%) and fruit, vegetables and cereals (17,076 or 22.7%).
Transformers (7,090 units, 1.1% more than in 2012) were also more frequent in the extra virgin olive oil (1,863 or 26.3% of the total), cheese (1,691 or 23.9%) and fruit, vegetables and cereals (1,165 or 16.4%) sectors. In comparison to 2012, the number of livestock farms (41,955 farms) fell by 2% while the surface area covered (162,154 hectares) rose by 1.6%.
Quality products contribute to promoting development in the mountainous areas of the country: 27.8% of producers are located in the mountains, against 17% of mountain farms recorded by the 2010 Agricultural Survey.
Overall, the stability number of producers recorded between 2012 and 2013 was the result of a fall in Northern (-4.2%) and Central areas (-1%) against a rise in South and Islands area (+7.5%). The slight rise in the number of transformers was due to an increase in the Centre and North, surpassing the fall in the South and Islands area.