Italian agriculture minister Gianni Alemanno has claimed that new anti-fraud controls put in place by the country’s government are protecting its growers.

"The results of the new controls carried out by ICRF (Central Inspection Unit for Fraud Repression) prove that the national production of fruit and vegetables is being attacked by EU and non-EU production,” said Alemanno. “Hence, such controls are necessary, to avoid falsified labelling and unfair competition.”

The products of 1,430 large and small scale distributors, wholesalers and retailers have been ICRF controlled, revealing that more than 23 per cent come from EU and non-EU countries. Such percentage exceeds 25 per cent for organised large scale distributors, and drops to 18 per cent for small retailers (25 per cent for wholesalers).

ICRF also discovered 1,497 irregular procedures, which is disturbingly more than 10 per cent of the controlled products, mainly due to labelling flaws (with some obligatory information missing). Irregularities totalled 13 per cent in EU and non-EU products, still mainly regarding missing or incomplete labels.

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