The first 2013 meeting of the European garlic contact group between Italy, France and Spain took place on 18th-19th April 2013 at Delizia di Belriguardo, in the Voghiera area (Emilia-Romagna), famous for its "Voghiera PDO Garlic", in the presence of Neda Barbiere, chairman of the Consortium for its safeguard.
Representatives from the three countries discussed the productive and commercial aspects of garlic, and how European producers can unite in order to promote European garlic, which is currently being affected by Chinese competition.
In fact, China is the first producer country worldwide, with 17.5 million tons (75% of the total production). Of course, produce arrives in Europe as well, and it is capable of influencing the price of garlic at a global level.
In Europe, the main producer is Spain, with 140,000 tons produced in Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia. Spain is also the first European exporter, shipping its produce mainly to Italy and France, but also to the UK and Germany. France produces around 20,000 tons, 80% of which are white garlic mainly cultivated in the South-East and South-West. In Italy in 2012, 27,000 tons were produced on 2,980 hectares, which weren't enough to meet national demand, especially since a third of the produce is exported.
Visits had been organised for the first day to the companies part of the Voghiera white garlic Consortium, which is made up of small and medium enterprises cultivating and packing the product according to the indications given by the Consortium, which manages its image and promotion.
Left to right: Antonio Escudero, chairman of ANPCA, Francesco Delfanti from Delfanti Trade, Silvia Carpio from the Cico Mazzoni Group, Christiane Pieters from ANIAIL and Luciano Trentini from the CSO.
During the second day, at a meeting with Luciano Trentini from Ferrara's CSO, operators talked about the difficulties they encountered in 2012, as prices were lower than the previous year. Each delegation explained the productive and commercial reasons behind it.
Francesco Delfanti (in the photo above) from the Delfanti Trade group, explained how, in 2012, a particularly snowy winter and dry weather during spring and summer influenced production.
The opportunity was discussed of creating a European garlic producer organisation to safeguard the interests of a produce which is not always profitable for producers - despite numerous certifications i.e., Voghiera's White PDO Garlic and Polesano's White PDO Garlic - as both the Italian and European productions are not promoted enough and their entry on the market are not planned as they should be.
Christiane Pieters, chairman of Aniail, Antonio Escudero, chairman of Anpca, and Iulio Bacete, a representative of the Spanish Garlic Board, have emphasised how there are associations in France and Spain that collect requests from producers and those who sell the product. In Italy though, it is always a problem to create a system, thus it is hard to operate in the best conditions.
Nowadays, policies are made in Brussels, therefore it is necessary for the contact group to use the networks at a European level to transfer their requests in order to make European production more competitive.
Phytosanitary problems were also discussed, as more knowledge is necessary on how to solve them e.g. healthy seeds are needed as well as more studies on Fusarium proliferatum and other diseases.
"Representatives from Sulmona's Red Garlic Consortium and Piacenza's White Garlic Consortium were also at the meeting, meaning that in the future we might be able to talk about the promotion Italian garlic, which must be advertised not only as a condiment, but also because of its positive effects on health," says Luciano Trentini.
The next meeting of the contact group will take place in October in France.
