New report on organic farming in the Mediterranean area

At IAMB, the Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo (Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari) in Bari, the new report “Il biologico nel bacino del Mediterraneo: politiche, normative e mercati per un'agricoltura di qualità” (Organics in the Mediterranean Basin: politics, standards and markets for quality agriculture) was presented.
 
Published by Ismea’s Osservatorio permanente sul sistema agroalimentare dei Paesi del Mediterraneo (Standing observatory on agri-food systems in the Mediterranean countries), the report supplies detailed information and directions for the development of the organic sector and starting points to define strategies for Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries, as a tool for trade, since in 2010 a Free Trade Zone will be set in the region. This year’s report on more than 200 pages is available for download free of charge at www.ismea.it.
 
For years, Ismea (Institute for services to the agri-food market), studying food and agricultural economics, has been working in the sector of organic food and has been publishing a yearly report. A quarterly report on sales in cooperation with ACNielsen is also available.
 
The main aspects of the current report on organics in the Mediterranean Basin were presented at the meeting and discussed by the authors Uygun Aksoy, Lina Al Bitar, Samia Maamer Belkhiria, Mohamed Ben Kheder, Duccio Caccioni, Mufit Engiz, Francesco Giardina, Luigi Guarrera, Giulio Malorgio, Davide Marino, Nino Paparella, Roberto Pinton, Patrizia Pugliese, Marta Romeo, Fabio Maria Santucci and Concetto Scivoletto. Questions from the public were also answered.
 
The regional Ministers of Agriculture of Apulia (Enzo Russo) and Sicily (Giovanni La Via) and the president of Ismea (Arturo Semerari) took part in the meeting. Paolo De Castro, the Italian Minister of Agriculture, made the closing speech.
 
www.iamb.it