Italian food goes global: Products and services for international markets

This work will focus principally on the agricultural "Made in Italy" with the aim of explaining all its features: the strong points and the problems.

The first chapter explains the significance of the "made in" and the relatives regulations by the "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade" and by the "World Trade Organizations". Then I tried to deals with the "Made in Italy" describing its organizational set-up and especially the peculiarity of its tradition. Obviously I didn’t neglect all the problems that the globalization generated on the Italian System, quoting also some cases such as the Chinese predominance on the textile industries of Prato (Tuscany). Then, before to introduce the "100% Made in Italy certificate" presented by the "Institute for the Protection of Italians Manufacturers", I tried to give a possible solution speaking about the complexity of the "Made in Italy" brand. In the second Paragraph, the tables and graphs (from OCSE data) explain the history of the export of Italian products from 1996 to 2011, where all the products are divided following the "Standard International Trade Classification".

In the second chapter I analyzed the "Made in Italy" in an agricultural point of view. Indeed I analyzed the trend of export-import of Agro-food products with
data taken from the Italian "National Institute of Statistics" (ISTAT) with its relative classification (data updated until the first semester of 2013). Then Table 2.3 and Table 2.5 show, respectively, the principals Countries of Destination and the "news" Countries of Destination that have had an increase on Italian products import in the last years. §2.1.2 explains the "Constant Market Share Analysis" and shows the results based on Italian agro-food trade.
§2.2 illustrates what the agro-food certifications are and how they are disciplined in Italian and European rules. So I focused on ITER to achieve a certification and then I narrated the history and the reason for their entry into the food world (from the Paris Convention of 1883 to European Council of 21 November 2012). Then I concentrated the attention on the specific certification for food products, thus I explained the essential steps and features to get respectively these label: "Protected Designation of Origin", "Protected Geographical Indication", and "Traditional Specialty Guaranteed" (making a list of the principal Italian food products that have achieved one of these certifications). Then I did the same thing but for the specific labels of Italian vines and of Organic food.

I considered useful describing the European and Italian certification also in order to analyze the problem of the so-called "Italian Sounding": products that use the "Made in Italy" brand without specific authorizations. This is a huge problem also for the big amount of loss of gain that takes place each year. Therefore §3.1 and §3.2, focus on Italian cases of counterfeiting: in other words I described, respectively, previous cases about Italian Supermarkets and previous cases about Italian firms with the aim of forging Italian products. Afterwards I dealt with the problem of counterfeiting abroad, starting from the cases legally punishable by the European Union (so except the extra EU countries). Then I analyzed the really big problem, the so-called "Italian Sounding" that it’s not legally punishable and it’s also difficult to find out. Thus I showed some evident cases of this forgery principally on United States market. §3.6 tries to describe the dimension of this phenomenon not only in an economic point of view but thinking also to the damage for the "image" of Italian label in the eyes of foreign consumers. Then, after having described a previous Italian project built to defeat this problem, I tried to give the possible solutions, both taking the cue from Italian Associations’ ideas, both from my personal opinion.

In the fourth chapter I focused on the Italian food service, a sector that I consider really important and underestimated also in terms of lack of certification and protection. Indeed I evaluate the Italian Restaurant as a whole sector that could include also all the Italian products certified and thus could resolve the problems connected to the counterfeiting.
Initially I listed some data about all the Italian Restaurants abroad, especially regarding those placed in Germany, England, France and United States.
Then, §4.1 explains the problem of "Italian Sounding" but this time in relations to the Italian Restaurants: a neglected problem but which, in my opinion, produces a lot of damage.
Then I described some proposal or actual certification present in Italy, focusing principally on the label "Italian Hospitality, Italian Restaurants around the world" and on its guidelines. Indeed I tried of commenting this label, giving also some personal comments.
Paragraph 4.4 analyzes the phenomenon of "EATALY", an Italian company that is opening locations around the world but that for the "insiders" doesn’t arise the image of Italian cuisine.

Then I started to explain my concept and my personal proposal in order to certify the Italian Restaurants. First of all I illustrated a questionnaire of 14 demands that I wrote and submitted to 68 foreign students aged between 20 and 27 years. This Questionnaire needs to understand how the foreigners view the Italian cuisine and how much they could pay more if there was the security, given by a certificate, that a specific Restaurant has certain characteristics. After having, item by item, analyzed the results, I laid the foundations to structure my proposal of law and of certification.

In the final chapter, therefore, I advanced a proposal of law with 6 principals points and a specific guideline in order to obtain a certification that could become the only way to open a Restaurant abroad with names or figures linked to Italy. Therefore my idea is principally protecting more the Italian products and the Italian food service (viewed also as ice-cream parlor and "pizzeria", not only as a restaurant)..

Travelling abroad, I have noticed how much the foreigners appreciate the Italian cuisine for its specific qualities. Therefore if we link this sector with our Nation, this could enhance the name of Italy but also increase and help the true Italian Restaurants spreads in the world and could enhance our State for the new revenues due to this potential certification.