Il libro verde sulla qualità dei prodotti agricoli: un’incerta prospettiva per il 2013

Abstract

The Green paper of the European Commission on agricultural product quality (Brussels, 15.10.2008 – COM(2008) 641 final) marks a significant step in the path toward the next reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy envisaged for 2013. According to what is declared in the title, the document of the Commission should be mainly dealing with issues regarding the quality of agricultural products. In fact the Green paper is almost exclusively discussing issues regarding communication and marketing rules more than quality rules as such, and it is mainly concerned with food products (as obtained after the industrial phase of transformation, and marketed to the consumer) more than with agricultural products (as obtained in the primary phase of the production). This approach induces the Author to observe that the Green paper appears to be more relevant for what is absent than for what is present in the arguments of the Commission. Another contradiction which is underlined by the Author is in the circumstance that the Green paper, in the Introduction clearly distinguishes between baseline measures (baseline production requirements covering safety and hygiene, product identity and composition, environmental care) applicable as such to all marketed products, and quality measures (‘premium’ products which offer the consumer something over and above baseline requirements) applicable only to products having specific and distinctive appeal in the market; but on the other side, in fact, conceals and forgets this basic distinction in the proposals expressed in the document. The risk is that the agri-food European policy for 2013, as envisaged by the Commission, will move toward a perspective of banalization of quality, which will prejudice agricultural producers locally established and will benefit mainly the industrial and transnational phase of transformation.