(by Alessandra Moneti) There will not be another Universal Exposition in Italy for the next century, statistics say, and the Federalimentare pavilion at Milan Expo 2015 will not only have to provide millions of foreign visitors with an overview of Italian food products, it will also have the task of showing that Italy has left its recession behind it.
The food industry, as represented by Filippo Ferrua, the chief of Italian food-and-drink association Federalimentare, underscored that the event would provide ''stimulus to the country to get out of the crisis''. Italy's gastronomic traditions will be showcased from May until October 2015, via 200 key food and agriculture sector companies and their 1,000 brand names in a 5,000-square-foot pavilion: 'Cibus è Italia - Il padiglione Expo Federalimentare' (Cibus is Italia - the Federalimentare Expo Pavilion).
The Expo 2015 pavilion of the Italian food industry was presented on Tuesday in Rome at the Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies Ministry. ''It is the result of a 15-million-euro investment, almost exclusively from the private sector'', said Fiere di Parma CEO Antonio Cellie, underscoring that the facilities were designed with a focus on environmental sustainability and that after the Expo they would be disassembled and taken to the Parma fairgrounds, which will become the location of a food-and-agriculture products fair. ''At the Expo,'' said Maurizio Martina, Minister of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, ''we want to represent the greatness of Italian food and agriculture heritage, which has an extraordinary history, quality and richness resulting from deep ties across the entire country''.
The pavilion was built by Italy's national food-and-drink association Federalimentare - which gathers under its umbrella some 6,000 enterprises - and Fiere di Parma, with substantial contribution from the ministry, and it is expected to be visited not only by the millions likely to attend the Expo itself, in addition to 2,000 professionals working in the sector from around the world who have scheduled visits. Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (ICE) Chief Riccardo Monti noted that the event is expecting the ''most colossal incoming arrival of buyers'' and other sector professionals from around the world ''ever''. ''We have six months to present ourselves to the world and we want to get all of Italy's regions involved in this huge promotion over the 24 weeks of the Expo,'' he added. An online platform developed in collaboration with eBay will also enable visitors to buy products exhibited during and after the Expo.
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