The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Francesco Lollobrigida will inaugurate the 42nd edition of Macfrut, the international fruit and vegetable supply chain fair, scheduled at the Rimini Expo Centre from 6 to 8 May (entrance 9:30 am - 6:00 pm). The inauguration ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday 6 May at 11:00 am at the Anbi space (National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of Land and Irrigation Waters), an area that on Wednesday 7 May at 5:00 pm will host the speech by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani on the occasion of the fourth Anbi Organizational Conference.

All this in the Macfrut trade fair setting that makes Rimini the international hub of the global fruit and vegetable supply chain thanks to the proposals of 1,400 exhibitors (over 40% foreign), 1,500 top buyers connected to a networking platform, thematic salons, a hundred or so events on trends and tendencies in the sector. Among the new features is the large arena of healthy food, The Healthy Food Show, with 11 nationally renowned testimonials in dialogue with chefs and scientific experts. Partner Country Egypt will be the protagonist with a large area together with 40 companies, while Lazio will be the Region at the centre of the three days with its 11 PDO and PGI fruit and vegetable products. And again, three World Symposiums (Biotechnology, Potato, Mediterranean Aromatic Plants), Thematic Salons on the present and future of the sector coordinated by a team of experts, two test fields on innovations in the field and much more. At the same time as Macfrut there will be Fieravicola, an international event dedicated to the poultry and rabbit supply chain.

The star of the three-day event is fruit and vegetables, a sector that in Italy is worth over 17 billion euros in production, a figure that rises to around 60 billion in value if the entire supply chain is taken into consideration, from seed to table. Fruit and vegetables represent over a quarter of national agricultural production (28%) and together with vegetable preserves, contribute to 18% of Italian agri-food exports.

Overall, there are 300 thousand agricultural companies in the sector for 1.3 million hectares. Exports are growing, reaching almost 6.5 billion last year (+6.3%), for a value that rises to 12.5 billion euros if processed products are also added to fresh products. Analyzing the medium term of the last five years (2019-2023), exports for fresh products alone have recorded a leap of +30.3%.

The Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Francesco Lollobrigida will inaugurate the 42nd edition of Macfrut on Tuesday 6 May at 11 a.m., during a conference promoted by Anbi (National Association of Consortia for the Management and Protection of Land and Irrigation Waters) on the theme “Water is the Future”. Francesco Vincenzi , President of Anbi, Cristiano Fini , President of Cia Agricoltori Italiani, Massimiliano Giansanti , President of Confagricoltura, Ettore Prandini , President of Coldiretti, Marco Riccardo Rusconi , Director of Aics, Livio Proietti , President of Ismea, and Maria Chiara Zaganelli , Director of Crea, will discuss this fundamental resource in agriculture in two sessions.

The second session gets into the heart of the inauguration of the fair with contributions from Renzo Piraccini , president of Macfrut, Giancarlo Righini , councilor for Agriculture of the Lazio Region, Luigi Scordamaglia , managing director of Filiera Italia, Maurizio Forte , Central Directorate for Export of the Ice Agency, and Michele De Pascale , president of the Emilia-Romagna Region. The final conclusions are up to the Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Francesco Lollobrigida . The meeting is moderated by Valerio Baroncini , deputy director of the Resto del Carlino.