(by Elisa Cecchi).
    (ANSA) - Rome, January 16 - Italian Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina says Expo 2015 opening in Milan on May 1 will provide extraordinary visibility for Italian-made food products while helping curb food fraud.
    He also announced an upcoming European forum ahead of the food-themed Expo to discuss joint strategies to fight the sale of products falsely labelled Made In Italy, which is estimated to subtract billions every year from the Italian agri-food industry, according to farmers' union Coldiretti.
    "I think (Expo) can provide an occasion to boost controls and ways to counter the phenomenon (of food fraud)," the minister said Thursday on the sidelines of the presentation of the third Agromafia report.
    The report is published by Coldiretti with European statistics institute Eurispes and the observatory on agricultural crime and the agricultural system.
    The minister also announced that the government is organizing a forum in March, together with European food safety authorities, to increase coordination at a European level against fraud in the agri-food sector. The Agromafia report highlighted the danger that the six-month-long Universal Exposition, while "an extraordinary occasion of visibility" for Italy's agri-food business, could also lead to foodstuffs produced abroad being wrongly sold as Italian products "worth more than 60 billion euros".
    The report called for boosted security measures and more information on labels.
    A special web platform for Expo 2015 will help promote Italy's excellence in food and agriculture, a sector including as many as 700,000 firms.
    The portals www.italianqualityexperience and www.iqex.it will showcase Italy's diverse agri-food business with a virtual tour also enabling viewers to access areas where Made in Italy production takes place.
    Italy's 81 Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad and a network of 1,700 Italian restaurants across 55 countries will contribute in promoting the portals abroad.
    Meanwhile, Raffaele Cantone, president of Italy's anti-corruption authority ANAC, announced earlier this week that construction work at Milan's massive Rho Pero exhibition center where Expo takes place will be completed on time despite a slow beginning.
    "It started late but we'll most definitely make it," said Cantone, who was given oversight of public contracts connected with Expo 2015 by Premier Matteo Renzi following corruption scandals that erupted in May of last year.
    Switzerland announced Thursday that construction work on its pavilion will be completed by January 29.
    Swiss food giant Nestlé will host an interactive exhibition in the Swiss Pavilion at the Expo.
    The company has invested three million Swiss francs in the partnership with the Swiss pavilion, including the exhibit.
    Nestle Research Center, the world's largest private nutrition research center, Nestlé Institute of Health Science, and the Italian food science Institute for Auxology created the exhibition looking into the relationship between mind, body and food, and the mechanisms governing food preferences.
    Serbia has also announced it will start setting up its own pavilion next month, after Italy granted the location for free.
    The country, which suffered extensive damage after floods last May, was about to forego taking part in the Expo due to the expense of half a million euros required for a pavilion, Serbian Trade Minister Rasim Ljajic said. Meanwhile hundreds of volunteers are signing up to help with Expo.
    The coordinating operation Ciessevi Milano said this week that 14,000 volunteers from all five continents, and representing a total of 31 languages spoken, have already applied.
    The program is now looking for another 1,000 volunteers from within the European Union or countries in the Erasmus+ program and between the ages of 18 and 30 with knowledge of English and Italian to work two-week shifts at the European Union pavilion.
    And as preparations are underway for the Universal Exposition in Italy's financial capital, events leading up to the fair will include the "Expo of Ideas" initiative at Milan's Hangar Bicocca art museum on February 7.
    "More than 500 people will meet and work together towards the Milan Charter," minister Martina said, in a reference to the document that will bind countries to food and development-related objectives.
    The Charter will be delivered to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when he visits the world's fair in October.
    The minister said the Milan Charter will represent for food what the Kyoto Protocol has been for climate change.
    Agriculture ministers from countries attending Expo are due to sign the charter June 4 at an international forum.