Cristiano Fini is the new national president of Cia-Italian Farmers. Modenese entrepreneur, from Castelfranco Emilia, 50 years old, he was nominated by the eighth elective Assembly, gathered in Rome at the Eliseo Theater and made up of 399 delegates, representing the nearly 900 members throughout Italy. Fini, an agrotechnician, is the owner of an agricultural and wine company with 13 hectares invested in organic vineyards, former president of Cia Emilia-Romagna since 2018 and, previously, of Cia Modena. He succeeds Dino Scanavino, at the top of the CIA for the last 8 years. “We are going through a really complicated phase: the pandemic, the war, the exceptional price increases of raw materials, the risk of an energy and food crisis, climate change. Yet - explained Fini - our sector, with all the difficulties, remains one of the cornerstones of the national economy. The added value of Italian agriculture, equal to approximately 33 billion, remains the highest in the EU. The agri-food system, as a whole, makes up 15% of the GDP. This is why we can and must fight, putting our priorities, our battles back at the center ”.
“We need precise and punctual large-scale actions, such as a national and European energy policy that seeks to calm costs and speculations, as well as measures to support production chains, brought to their knees by the incredible production price increases and market instability. But above all - continued the CIA president - there is finally a need for a redistribution of value along the supply chain. We must cry out the need for a fair income for farmers, teaming up on this common goal, as well as on major investments in research to equip the primary sector with innovative tools against climate change. And then: push towards new digital technologies and clear openness to genetic improvement techniques from a sustainable perspective; reservoirs for the accumulation of useful water in the driest periods, but also insurance and national mutual fund to deal with calamities ".
“On the eve of the great campaigns - underlined Fini - the problem of labor in the fields also remains urgent, from the point of view of both costs and availability. So we are no longer competitive. More flexibility is needed, as experienced with vouchers. Let's change the word if we don't like it, but it's the tool we need. And again: access to land and credit for generational turnover; enhancement of women in the sector who are now 30%; right pensions for those who have spent their whole life in the fields and now take just over 500 euros ".
“These are our priorities - highlighted the new CIA president - together with the relaunch of internal areas. Disadvantaged areas that have strategic importance for the whole country system, but are always left alone. Rural areas need policies and strategies: tax exemption, connection, unblocking depopulation and bringing back people and wealth. These are our claims, such as that on wildlife, with the reform of law 157 to protect agriculture, to secure roads and citizens, to save pig farms from the risk of ASF. All challenges that we must pursue by always keeping together protests and proposals ”.
"A new, more inclusive and innovative season awaits us - added Fini - within the organization and in relations with civil society and institutions, with all the other agricultural, agri-food and economic representatives of the country".
"There is a need for a pact with all the components of the system, starting with consumers - reiterated the CIA president - and the best vehicle to explain what we do are farmhouses, direct sales, social agriculture, educational farms. We must make everyone understand that agriculture is not the one that pollutes, that treats animals badly and exploits the workers, but the sector that protects the territory, that defends the environment and people, that makes the economy and the company. Even in Europe we must count more, bearing in mind that where we go together as a country system, we bring home the result ".
Just proclaimed, Fini wanted to thank the outgoing president Dino Scanavino and his antagonist in the electoral campaign Luca Brunelli (Italpress) for the work done.
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