“Italian cuisine is one of our country’s great identity values. What we eat not only tells a story about who we are, but is also an important part of our international reputation, fostering tourism, the discovery of our territories, and opening up new opportunities for international economic collaboration.
Yesterday we opened the tenth edition of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World (SCIM 2025). With over ten thousand initiatives organized over the years by our network of Embassies, Consulates, Italian Cultural Institutes, and ITA Offices, the event is one of the longest-running and most effective of the many initiatives promoted by the Foreign Ministry. Over the past year, 949 promotional initiatives were held, involving over 3,000 Italian companies in 223 cities in 87 countries around the world. This success demonstrates to what extent Italian cuisine is a universal language, capable of bringing peoples and cultures together and promoting dialogue and peace by conveying our traditions and promoting our entire agri-food supply chain. Above all, it demonstrates a commitment to working together and to increasingly protect and promote this sector.
Exports related to Italian cuisine closed 2024 with a record value of €67.5 billion, up 8.3% compared to the previous year, accounting for almost 11% of our total exports. The products of our agricultural and food supply chain are an important component of the Action Plan for Italian Exports to high-potential non-EU markets. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal – €700 billion in annual exports by the end of the legislature – which Italian food products and our country’s wine production can help us achieve.
Just a few weeks ago, I met with representatives of the Italian industrial and agri-food sectors, including some of our pasta producers, along with Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who was visiting Rome.
We have also equipped our embassies abroad with agricultural experts and Guardia di Finanza officials to provide companies and associations with tools dedicated to intellectual property and the fight against “Italian sounding“, which erodes the value and credibility of our products.
Protecting Italian cuisine is a priority for this government, especially in this historic moment, with European farmers protesting against the Green Deal; the demand for the protection of Geographical Indications; the anti-dumping procedures hitting pasta, and the adoption of tariffs that also affect wine and cheese, as well as all our exports.
In our strategy, cuisine is also a tool for cooperation and solidarity, for promoting food security and peace. In Palestine, we launched the “Food for Gaza” initiative, with the support of UN agencies and all key stakeholders in our country, to provide aid to the civilian population. To date, we have provided over 2,400 tons of food, medical supplies, and basic necessities, including 2,000 tons of flour, 60 tons of feed, and kits, distributed via trucks donated by Italy to the World Food Program or directly via airdrops from our Ministry of Defence in recent months. This project is one of the few in the world which has the full support of the Palestinian and Israeli authorities.
In Africa, we intend to launch a new initiative, “Italy for Sudan”, to provide humanitarian support to the civilian population, with a complex two-phase operation. We will first organize a cargo plane with food supplies collected with the support of Italian companies and private associations. We hope to launch this flight by the end of the year to provide an initial urgent response. In 2026, we plan to send a ship carrying a larger quantity of food, medical supplies, and basic necessities, also to help the population cope with the ongoing cholera epidemic.
As part of the Mattei Plan for Africa, we are also implementing innovative initiatives that, through new partnerships, including in the agri-food sector, and thanks to the involvement of leading figures in our private sector, contribute to growth and stability in the Mediterranean region and the African continent.
All of this lies behind the candidacy of Italian cuisine for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a decision on which is expected in New Delhi in December. It is a candidacy we wholeheartedly support, because our cuisine is an expression of the country’s identity and culture, the fruit of skills and knowledge that deserve to be protected and passed down to future generations.”
