Following the demonstrations at the Brenner Pass border against the import of agri-food products from Europe, Italian farmers shifted their protest to the ports on May 29, 2024. Organized by Coldiretti, the protests featured boats displaying banners reading "Stop fake Italian food" and "No unfair imports" as they approached ships with the cry of "No fake in Italy."
In Bari, the protest targeted a ship, labeled a "ghost" by Coldiretti, carrying wheat from Turkey. The association explains that this term was used because the ship "disappeared after leaving Tunisia, from where it was reportedly rejected," and later "touched Greek shores before arriving at the Apulian port."
Coldiretti highlights that in 2023, imports of Turkish wheat increased by 800%, those from Russia by 1000%, and those from Kazakhstan by 170%. The association adds that "in the first two months of 2024 alone, almost 35 million kilos of Turkish durum wheat arrived, nearly matching the total amount recorded in all of 2022. Additionally, imports of Canadian durum wheat, treated with pre-harvest glyphosate in ways banned nationally, rose by 47% in 2023."
The Salerno protest targeted a container ship that completed the first sea-rail bimodal journey started on April 29, 2024, in China by China-Europe Railway Express, transporting forty containers of Chinese tomato concentrate. This shipment has been contested by some international associations, alleging that the product was harvested and processed exploiting the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang region.
According to Coldiretti, "last year, Italy imported 85 million kilos of processed Chinese tomatoes, mostly from Xinjiang, despite the United States banning its importation since January 2021 to prevent supporting forced labor." In Salerno, the ship was similarly approached by the association's boats.
Coldiretti demands a revision of the Customs Code criteria on food origin, specifically the "last transformation" rule. The association states that this rule "allows the identity theft of our made-in-Italy products, selling as Italian ham made with pork legs from abroad." Coldiretti argues that currently, the food origin label indicates the country where the last transformation occurs.
"We believe it cannot and should not be the last transformation, but the product used, highlighting its Italian nature," declares President Ettore Prandini. "This is why we are at the ports today, to denounce this distortion that threatens our made in Italy and our businesses, and we are collecting 1 million signatures for a European popular law to mandate origin labeling on all products across Europe."
