Coldiretti: From tomorrow in Italy 2 restaurants out of 3 will be closed

• Istat: over 2 million Italian families in absolute poverty

• Confesercenti: shadows of recession throughout 2021

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07 March 2021 Today could become the D-Day in many regions to experience a normality, by now like an amarcord, sitting at the table or at the counter in bars, restaurants, pizzerias and farmhouses before the anti Covid blockade.

A stop that involves more than 2 out of 3 restaurants (66%) along the Peninsula which is colored with red or orange areas, while in Sardinia, the only white area of ​​our country 12 thousand catering services can even remain open in the evening.

The analysis is by Coldiretti on the occasion of the new color map that will be shot from tomorrow Monday where only Valle d'Aosta, Liguria, Lazio, Calabria, Puglia and Sicily remain yellow.

A picture that highlights the worsening of the situation due to the progress of infections that require limitations on individual freedom, on social life but also on the economic sustainability of productive activities one year after the start of the pandemic.

Coldiretti underlines how the possibility of evening opening for dinner is worth 80% of the turnover of restaurants, pizzerias and agritourisms severely tested by forced closures but in the yellow regions only home delivery is allowed in the evening or the takeaway that reduces economic sustainability to justify the openings so much that many prefer to keep the shutters lowered, increasing economic and employment losses.

Even more serious - continues Coldiretti - the situation in the red and orange areas where table and counter service is always prohibited with a further blow to bars, restaurants and farmhouses that overwhelms entire sectors of the Made in Italy agri-food industry with an avalanche wine and unsold food for a value estimated by Coldiretti at 11.5 billion after a year of intermittent openings that have brought the entire chain of out-of-home consumption to its knees, which is worth 1/3 of the food expenditure of Italians away from home.

The drastic reduction in activity - argues Coldiretti - weighs on the sale of many agri-food products, from wine to beer, from meat to fish, from fruit to vegetables which find an important outlet market in out-of-home consumption.

In some sectors such as fish and wine, catering - specifies Coldiretti - even represents the main marketing channel in terms of turnover, but high-end products from wine to cured meats and cheeses have been most affected.

It is estimated that 300 million kilos of beef, 250 million kilos of fish and seafood and about 200 million bottles of wine have never arrived in the last year on the tables of the locals forced to an exhausting stop and go without the possibility to plan purchases even for highly perishable products.

Numbers behind which - specifies Coldiretti - there are tens of thousands of farmers, breeders, fishermen, winegrowers and cheesemakers who suffer together with restaurateurs

In these economic sectors, the chain reaction involves 360 thousand bars, canteens, restaurants and agritourisms in the Peninsula with difficulties on 70,000 food industries and 740,000 farms along the supply chain committed to guaranteeing supplies for a total of 3.6 million jobs.

It is a question of defending - concludes Coldiretti - the first wealth of the country with the national agri-food chain which is worth 538 billion equal to 25% of the national GDP but is also a record-breaking reality for quality, safety and variety at international level.