The problem we solve
We try to solve the "Italian Sounding" problem
When we talk the “Italian Sounding” problem, what are we actually talking about? We could define it as a marketing of food and beverage produced outside of Italy but labeled with misleading Italian names, giving birth to a real huge fraud. Yes, because creating products very similar for the images, the names and colors recreating their original Italian counterparts, leads people to buy products not really Italian, many times with an overpriced value.
Nowadays, 2 out of 3 products sold outside Italy are not Italian real products!
These products have no connection with the Italian originals since they are not linked to Italian cultural heritage and tradition and therefore they do not have the same excellence of the real “Made in Italy” products.
The Italian Sounding problem is not a “new” phenomenon, it actually begins in the nineteenth century, obviously it did not have such dimensions. At that time Italian emigrants all over the world, especially in Canada, U.S., Argentina and Brasil, began to produce food and to run restaurants. Since it was difficult, if not impossible, to import raw materials from Italy, they begin to label their products with the name of the Italian originals, displaying the typical clichés such as Pisa’s tower or the Coliseum surrounded by the colors of Italian flag, or simply juxtaposing images of Italian flags. If looking back seems a romantic tribute to the Country they were forced to leave to escape poor living conditions, now it is impossible to have this kind of feeling towards today’s national corporations that produce fake Gorgonzola or Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, naming them “Bombonzola” or “Parmesào”, made in Brazil.
The numbers from the data collected by Confagricoltura are quite astonishing: over 60 billions Euros just gone due to Made in Italy fakes and imitations sold on the market, and it is not black market. Fake Italian food and beverage are costing to the Italian manufacturers 53 billions Euros more than the actual food industry loss to food piracy; thus displaying how serious this problem is, threatening the original Made in Italy brands.
But what are the most copied products? The winner’s spot is, of course, occupied by the king of cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano; you can find fake easily Parmigiano mainly in USA, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, most famous one is the one produced from Kraft, easily to buy also in China. The second step of the podium is property of Prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele ham, then the Grana Padano cheese, the Buffalo Mozzarella, the Asiago and the Gorgonzola cheeses.
By taking advantage of the twilight zones in the counterfeit legislations, these companies make huge profits from the Italian sounding products: if in fact food piracy is illegal, yet producing goods that look like made in Italy products is not. Therefore, there is not any legal possibility, for today, to stop these companies from producing misleading products that, by profiting of the Made in Italy association, gain profits instead of the original Made in Italy counterparts.
Create misleading products with Italian names, flag colors or symbols today is legal!
Only international treatises and agreements could regulate, or at least reduce to a minimum, this trade. By developing such agreements, traders would be compelled to give exact information about the origin of the raw materials used and their product-making process. The countries that mostly profit from this food piracy are above all Canada and United States, where just one of ten Made in Italy products sold is authentic. This is incredible if we think that in Italy today agricultural and alimentary exports count as only eight percent of our country’s total exports. Therefore, is crucial for Italian manufactures to have their skills and products protected by European and International trade laws, in order to regain their competiveness in the global market, thus eliminating these grey areas of Italian soundings products.
People around world pay overprized values to get not real Italian products … do you want to be cheated ???
Confagricoltura urged the WTO to come up with a definition to protect “the indication of geographical origin community system” as foreign consumers buy fake or imitating products because they are not educated on how to tell apart the fake, they desperately need information. Until today, the only advice given is to look carefully to PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) certification on the label of the products, choosing the ones declaring "100% Italian ingredients" on the packaging, and by paying attention to the parmesan cheese, mozzarella, asiago, dairy products in general, tomato sauces and definitely the ham.
When we talk the “Italian Sounding” problem, what are we actually talking about? We could define it as a marketing of food and beverage produced outside of Italy but labeled with misleading Italian names, giving birth to a real huge fraud. Yes, because creating products very similar for the images, the names and colors recreating their original Italian counterparts, leads people to buy products not really Italian, many times with an overpriced value.
Nowadays, 2 out of 3 products sold outside Italy are not Italian real products!
These products have no connection with the Italian originals since they are not linked to Italian cultural heritage and tradition and therefore they do not have the same excellence of the real “Made in Italy” products.
The Italian Sounding problem is not a “new” phenomenon, it actually begins in the nineteenth century, obviously it did not have such dimensions. At that time Italian emigrants all over the world, especially in Canada, U.S., Argentina and Brasil, began to produce food and to run restaurants. Since it was difficult, if not impossible, to import raw materials from Italy, they begin to label their products with the name of the Italian originals, displaying the typical clichés such as Pisa’s tower or the Coliseum surrounded by the colors of Italian flag, or simply juxtaposing images of Italian flags. If looking back seems a romantic tribute to the Country they were forced to leave to escape poor living conditions, now it is impossible to have this kind of feeling towards today’s national corporations that produce fake Gorgonzola or Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese, naming them “Bombonzola” or “Parmesào”, made in Brazil.
The numbers from the data collected by Confagricoltura are quite astonishing: over 60 billions Euros just gone due to Made in Italy fakes and imitations sold on the market, and it is not black market. Fake Italian food and beverage are costing to the Italian manufacturers 53 billions Euros more than the actual food industry loss to food piracy; thus displaying how serious this problem is, threatening the original Made in Italy brands.
But what are the most copied products? The winner’s spot is, of course, occupied by the king of cheeses, Parmigiano Reggiano; you can find fake easily Parmigiano mainly in USA, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom, most famous one is the one produced from Kraft, easily to buy also in China. The second step of the podium is property of Prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele ham, then the Grana Padano cheese, the Buffalo Mozzarella, the Asiago and the Gorgonzola cheeses.
By taking advantage of the twilight zones in the counterfeit legislations, these companies make huge profits from the Italian sounding products: if in fact food piracy is illegal, yet producing goods that look like made in Italy products is not. Therefore, there is not any legal possibility, for today, to stop these companies from producing misleading products that, by profiting of the Made in Italy association, gain profits instead of the original Made in Italy counterparts.
Create misleading products with Italian names, flag colors or symbols today is legal!
Only international treatises and agreements could regulate, or at least reduce to a minimum, this trade. By developing such agreements, traders would be compelled to give exact information about the origin of the raw materials used and their product-making process. The countries that mostly profit from this food piracy are above all Canada and United States, where just one of ten Made in Italy products sold is authentic. This is incredible if we think that in Italy today agricultural and alimentary exports count as only eight percent of our country’s total exports. Therefore, is crucial for Italian manufactures to have their skills and products protected by European and International trade laws, in order to regain their competiveness in the global market, thus eliminating these grey areas of Italian soundings products.
People around world pay overprized values to get not real Italian products … do you want to be cheated ???
Confagricoltura urged the WTO to come up with a definition to protect “the indication of geographical origin community system” as foreign consumers buy fake or imitating products because they are not educated on how to tell apart the fake, they desperately need information. Until today, the only advice given is to look carefully to PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) certification on the label of the products, choosing the ones declaring "100% Italian ingredients" on the packaging, and by paying attention to the parmesan cheese, mozzarella, asiago, dairy products in general, tomato sauces and definitely the ham.
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