Italy: Workers’ efforts to secure food highlighted

Rome:  The Confederation of Direct Farmers (Coldiretti) highlighted the work of more than three million workers dedicated to ensuring food supply in Italy, amid serious limitations imposed by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

According to the organization, 740,000 farms and stables, 70,000 food processing companies and a wide distribution network between stores, supermarkets and farmers markets are working to guarantee the delivery of essential goods to the population. The president of the confederation, Ettore Prandini, stressed the importance of ‘supporting the effort that farmers and breeders make to guarantee the food supply to the country.’

Coldiretti commented on the efforts of the workers and the daily realities they must face to fulfill the commitment, such as the closure of bars and restaurants, as well as the nervous purchases of food and beverages ‘due to the unwarranted fear of not finding them available on the shelves’.

According to Coldiretti, 38 percent of Italians hoarded food, quoting a study by its pollster Ixe.

In the same way, it highlighted the important gestures of solidarity in the delivery of direct purchases to every house, especially in favor of the elderly or those infested with the virus, who cannot leave their homes, as dictated by the government to cut the chain of contagion, which had spread 17,750 people as of Saturday, and up to that moment had claimed 1,441 lives in Italy.

The Coldiretti / Ixe survey showed that the number of Italians making online purchases and requesting home delivery increased by 11 percent.

It also pointed out in reference to the survey, that the vast majority of consumers (82 percent) agree that at this stage it is important to buy Italian products to protect the agri-food chain, which guarantees Italy’s primacy in quality and food safety.