Minister Lollobrigida: "Stop food pirates. The vote in the Marche? Acquaroli wins"

Ancona, May 13, 2025 – Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, will be visiting the Marche for two days, a land of agri-food and wine-making excellence. It is a heritage to be defended from dangerous phenomena such as agro-piracy and also from more or less legal imitations.

"I agree. The Marche is an extraordinary region and the name itself, in the plural, conveys the sense of the differences between territories, which represent a great added value. Here there is a food culture particularly rich in products, which in recent years have extraordinarily established themselves on the markets. The Region has supported this vocation through participation in major international events and promotion linked to great sports champions, from Mancini to Tamberi. I remember with pleasure the mission to Paris as part of the candidacy of Italian cuisine for UNESCO heritage. The then French minister, Marc Fesneau, underlined Italy's great ability to promote cuisine and all the productions connected to it. And I dare say that the results have been seen. We have reached the figure of 70 billion for agri-food exports, plus seven billion in recent years, the result of the ability of our entrepreneurs and the synergic action of the government and the Regions".

But protective measures for the products are needed.

"It's true, they try to imitate us, sometimes legally, sometimes less so. Well, after years of waiting, our government has promoted a DDL (bill) that introduces three new crimes: food fraud, agro-piracy, emulation of typical symbols of Italian products. Obviously we have increased the sanctions for those who commit these types of crimes, starting from the many texts that were lying in Parliament, announced and never approved, and from the advice of our police forces, who need adequate tools in regulatory terms. In fact, we have also established a control room that coordinates the activity of the police forces, to be able to verify those who damage the Italian system with illegal practices, but without harassing companies. The strengthening of the system of controls with a deterrent function is already producing exceptional results".

Let's get to the breeding. Coldiretti raises the alarm for wolves: almost two hundred attacks in 2024 and damages for 110 thousand euros. What do you answer?

"Since I took office I have maintained that if we want to respect the balance of the ecosystem, we must put man in the position of being a bioregulator, capable of helping species when they are at risk of extinction, but also of intervening when a species exceeds its presence, to the point of putting forms of breeding at risk. In Europe we have fought to review the form of protection of the wolf, from a 'super protected' species to a 'protected' species, involving the EU and arriving at the revision of the Bern Convention. At the time that type of protection was a correct measure, but today it must be re-evaluated and forms of intervention must be foreseen that can allow the existence of the wolf in a framework of respect for other species, including man".

For agriculture, the challenge of adapting to climate change opens up, from extreme events that damage production to dry summers in which the problem of water supply returns.

"Today we have to deal with a profoundly changed climate situation. Devastating flood events have also affected the Marche, while periods of drought cannot be considered emergencies, because they are cyclical. We have to propose again, and I say propose again because we have had experience with it in past eras, a system of water accumulation with the use of existing basins and the creation of new ones through a reservoir plan. We have already passed an ad hoc decree that simplifies the creation of reservoirs or the redevelopment of basins, and appointed a commissioner who has activated a plan for the whole of Italy. The results will not be immediate, but there is already activity on this front never recorded in previous years".

Let's talk about the new CAP (European Agricultural Policy). The approach of the new EU commission seems to have changed.

"The last five years have been devastating from the point of view of the prevalence of ideological approaches to the issue of the environment. Vice President Timmermans had 'imposed' choices that in the name of hyper-environmentalist policies put the farmer in conflict with the environment, a folly. First from the opposition and then in government we fought in Europe so that the first custodians of the land, farmers and fishermen, would return to being considered what they have been for millennia, curators of the most precious things they have, land and sea, and guarantors of the land also with respect to climate change. The change of direction of the new commission is objectively also due to the battles fought in Agrifish (agriculture and fisheries council) by our government and President Meloni in person, who on 21 March 2024 led European leaders to talk about agriculture alongside major international issues. In that meeting, a reversal of the trend was established with the revision of the CAP, which returns to being an incentive and not a penalty. Today, the vision proposed by the Hansen commissioner with the collaboration by Executive Vice President Fitto marks a change of pace and we return to having food sovereignty as a point of reference for European policies".

Fishing has been going through a crisis for decades now: declining profitability, suffocating rules, the invasion of so-called alien species. Yet it is a fundamental sector for the Marche.

"A month and a half ago we received the European Commissioner for Fisheries, Costas Kadis, in Italy, right in the Marche, in San Benedetto. President Acquaroli asked and obtained that he come to visit an important reality, which over the years has seen the attention of the institutions wane. In Europe we have scored a point: in the December negotiations for the first time we obtained the elimination of the reductions imposed on fishermen, who are finally breathing after having seen the size of the fleet reduce by 30-40% over the years. But also as a government we wanted to guarantee funds to the fleet, also opening up to fishermen tenders previously reserved only for farmers, for example the one dedicated to innovation with a budget of 300 million. I would add: we have modified an important law, the 102 of 2004, which today puts fishermen in a position to have the same compensation as farmers in the event of disasters, from slime to blue crabs".

In the Marche region, there is a vote and the governor of FdI, Francesco Acquaroli, will seek an encore. He will probably have a wide field in front of him, for the first time, and the MEP of the Pd, Matteo Ricci. Are you worried?

"Look, I think that the work done by Governor Acquaroli is clear for all to see. The Marche has become a strategic region of the Italian system. It has returned to being a protagonist thanks to a promotional action, also managing to fill the gap accumulated in years in which little or nothing had been done in strategic and infrastructural terms. The citizens will be the ones to judge, but they will certainly have before them, in addition to an electoral competition, a fundamental choice between a region projected into the future and a return to the past. I don't believe much in broad fields, I believe instead that coalitions must have programs deriving from homogeneous values ​​and proposals from which effective strategies can emerge. I am convinced that also through the involvement of the civic spirit that supports the center-right, the result of Acquaroli's confirmation is within reach".