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Italian food and wine market in UK continues to grow despite Brexit

Sales of Italian delicacies and wines in the UK are up, despite a slowdown due to “Brexit effects.”

Published: 29 October 2018 16:45 CET

Italian food and wine market in UK continues to grow despite Brexit

The marketing of non-Italian products as Italian is harming the sector, a study says. Photo: Depositphotos/Maximkabb

Global sales of Italian food and wines are set to break the €40 billion mark, if growth continues to mirror the first eight months of 2018.

Sales are up 9.1 per cent vis-a-vis 2017 for the sector, with Italian farmers’ federation Coldiretti predicting it could be a record-breaking year.

While average growth across the EU – mainly France and Germany – was 8.6 per cent, sales of Italian delicacies and wines in the UK showed “signs of Brexit effects” and growth was slower at 1.3 per cent.

A selection of imported Italian pasta on supermarket shelves. Photo: Depositphotos

Prosecco hit a first hangover after ten years of uninterrupted growth. For the first time in a decade, the number of bottles of Venetian sparkly exported to the UK dropped, according to Coldiretti.

2018 is set to be a record year for Italian food and drink exports, but Coldiretti nevertheless lamented that the Italian food and beverage sector could be worth €100 billion if brands, labels and geographical indicators weren’t copied in other markets.

Piracy of the ‘Made in Italy’ brand costs the sector €60 billion each year, according to another study by Coldiretti.

Coldiretti and Italian lobbies say that two out of three food products advertising themselves as Italian outside of Italy actually have nothing to do with Italy.

Cheese makers seem to be the most guilty. Parmiagiano Reggiano and Grana Padano (parmesans), Gorgonzola, Pecorino, Provolone, Asiago and Fontina are some of the most copied types.

Coldiretti says foreign companies exploit Italy’s profile “with misappropriated images, colours, words, locations and recipes that recall Italy” – even if the product is usually not from Italy.

Are Italy's British residents still getting their passports stamped?

In the months after the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement was finalised, many UK citizens in Italy with permanent Italian residency reported having their passports wrongly stamped on leaving and entering Italy.

Italy is one of a handful of “declaratory” countries in the EU where getting a post-Brexit residency card was optional, rather than compulsory, though UK authorities advised obtaining the card as “evidence of your rights”.

The lack of clarity caused widespread confusion, with many Italian officials wrongly insisting that the carta di soggiorno elettronica was the only valid proof of pre-Brexit Italian residency.

Meanwhile, many travellers initially reported that border officials in Italy were not clear on the purpose of the card and had stamped their passports regardless – leading to concerns about erroneous stamps causing problems on future trips.

The issue appears to have been largely resolved for British citizens who finally gave in and applied for the document, with most cardholders saying they no longer have issues with their passports being stamped at the country’s major airports.

READ ALSO: What’s the deal with passport stamping in Italy?

However, some UK nationals resident in Italy say they’re still wrongly having their passports stamped at smaller airports in Italy, especially when travelling alongside large groups of British holidaymakers.

And others report routinely having their passport stamped when entering the Schengen zone via a different EU member state to that of Italy – for example, when travelling by car from the UK via France.

UK national David Prince commented in response to a recent article on passport stamping that a border official had stamped his passport on arriving in Calais, despite his presenting an Italian residency permit.

“When I asked why he simply said “Article 50,” Prince said, “which I knew was rubbish but I couldn’t be bothered to argue.”

According to European Commission rules in place since 2022, Schengen border agents have been told that they shouldn’t stamp the passports of anyone with a valid EU residence permit – but there’s no EU law stopping them from doing so.

Even if your passport is stamped, it doesn’t carry any official weight.

“The Commission recommends – notably as regards beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement – that Member State border guards refrain from stamping,” the rules say.

“In any case, should stamping nevertheless take place, such stamp cannot affect the length of the authorised long-term stay.”

READ ALSO: Can I use my Italian carta d’identità for travel?

If you arrive at any Schengen border, it’s advisable to hand over your passport already opened to the photo page, with your residency card on top, and say that you’re resident in Italy.

If you’re at an Italian border checkpoint, you might want to say ‘sono residente in Italia’ – I’m an Italian resident – and be prepared to answer questions about your reasons for being in Italy.

One additional source of confusion for some residents has been the difference between a carta d’identità and a carta di soggiorno.

The carta di soggiorno elettronica is the post-Brexit residency card which proves your status as a legal resident in Italy, wheres a carta d’identità is simply your Italian ID card.

The ID card is valid for ten years, but that doesn’t automatically give you the right to stay in Italy for all that time. Some non-EU citizens on certain visas might have a ten-year ID card, but a one-year Italian residency permit.

For that reason, your Italian ID card isn’t considered proof of your right to be in the country; as a British citizen resident in Italy and covered under the Withdrawal Agreement, you’ll need to show your carta di soggiorno elettronica to a border agent to stand the best chance of avoiding having your passport stamped.

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