The Festival of Fruits and Vegetables has been celebrated in Expo Milano 2015. Coldiretti was the focus of initiatives that took place along the Cardo. During the day dedicated to the variety of fruits and vegetables in the world, a meeting was held inside the Coldiretti Pavilion on the development of the Italian fruit and vegetable sector. The conference was attended by the President of Coldiretti, Roberto Moncalvo, and the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Maurizio Martina.

Promoting the vegetable market to save land and farmers

 

Figures on the fruit and vegetable market and the distribution of Italian agricultural areas were given out during the conference.“Promoting domestic consumption of fruit and vegetables and supporting exports of our products is crucial for our economy”, underlined Moncalvo. “By doing so it could be possible to fight the erosion of agricultural land that has decreased from 426,000 to 286,000 hectares in the last 15 years, and the decline in prices paid to farmers in a historic period in which “the cost of fruit and vegetables has exceeded that of the meat.”  According to research conducted by Coldiretti and Istat, fruits and vegetables are the top food product purchased by Italian families, with 23 percent of the budget used to feed families.

 

More and more families choose "do it yourself” cultivation

 

The passion for the vegetable garden has spread to the city, research conducted by Coldiretti and Censis reported that the domestic production of vegetables has increased. More and more people in Italy, almost 20 million, grow lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, zucchinis, eggplants, peppers and other kinds of products on their balconies or terraces. And to help this trend, new production techniques, such as urban gardens and vertical greenhouses have been illustrated in the Coldiretti area as well as job opportunities for young people who, as part of the Campagna Amica networks, would like to offer consulting and tutoring and become a “vegetable garden personal trainer”. The day dedicated to Italian fruit and vegetables ended with a distribution of fruit and vegetables and informative material on the properties of food.