In Bruxelles the IV European Forum Qualivita on Food Quality

On October 7th and 8th, the Qualivita Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture of Italy, France and Spain, organized in Bruxelles, Belgium, the IV European Forum on Food Quality. Following the theme of the previous editions, the general objective of the Forum is to contribute to increasing institutional-entrepreneurial knowledge regarding the role of quality policies in supporting agro-food system development. Although there are structural and economic differences between them, Italy, France and Spain are members of the EU and they share a Mediterranean vision of agro-food development through quality; a very important model that can form the basis of an international discussion or debate, starting from the Mediterranean area in its broader meaning.

The Forum was held at the Auditorium Espace of the Monte dei Paschi Bank in Belgium. For the first time, after experiences in Italy and Spain, the Forum took place in Belgium to allow the new members of the European Parliament (since July 2009), to have direct contact with agro-food themes, proposed by the three countries. Thanks to the themes discussed, the event was of international importance, fruit of an agreement recently signed between Monte dei Paschi Bank Group, Monte dei Paschi Foundation and Qualivita Foundation, to get joint protagonists of a strategic sector of the economy. The main sponsors of the Bruxelles Forum were Monte dei Paschi Bank Belgium and Engineering Ingegneria Informatica.

The 2009 Forum was organized into 2 day, with the first day dedicated to three thematic panels.

1st Panel: Quality and Consumer: a global approach
2nd Panel: Quality: Towards a sustainable development”
3rd Panel: Quality Policies of the European Union on Agricultural Products: a new vision through the green paper”

The first panel discussed the theme of agro-food development in the global scenario, with particular focus on countries in southern Europe and the Mediterranean area. In this context, the themes of production at an international scale of the geographical indications and the role of consumers in the quality chain development were focused upon. Mr. Francisco Sensat, Vicepresident of the FDM, participated in this panel.

The second panel was dedicated to the close link between quality products and the sustainable development of territories. Attention was brought upon the tools and actions that are able to insure the development and long term sustainability of rural areas. Social, economic and environmental issues were examined looking for answers on how quality can create value in rural areas for a long term perspective.

The third panel explored priorities and proposals able to improve the Community’s policies concerning the quality of agro-food products.

The results of the work sessions were presented the following day with institutional interventions by M. Philippe Rouault, Délégué interministériel aux industries agroalimentaries Minitère de l’Alimentation, de l’Agricultre et the la Pêche, for France, Josep Puxeu Rocamora, Secretario de Estado de Medio Rural y Agua, for Spain and by Giuseppe Nezzo, head of the Department of policies of economic and rural development of the MIPAAF for Italy.