Association of specialized stores founded in Italy

During the fair Sana in Italy, a meeting took place with the participation of about thirty stores (independent stores, NaturaSì and B’io), during which ideas were exchanged, and it was agreed that there was a necessity to give life to a national association to represent specialized stores. (Picture: NaturaSì)

The association aims at expressing the position of specialized retailers in one strong voice and at being able to supply a ground on which decisions can be made and public debates can be watched and joined.

Specialized stores, stated the promoters of the association, represented the most important link for communication with end consumers. Even though many of those store owners could be considered as real pioneers of the sector and provided much information to the public, their role was not valued enough. When talking about organics today, the concentration would lay on agricultural production or on the large distribution chains like Coop, Conad and Esslunga and it would be easily forgotten that there were more than 1,000 historical and important organic outposts.

The association is crossbench and independent, and exclusively aims at representing specialized stores. The foundation meeting took place on Nov. 4th, 2007.

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