"Europe is once again penalizing fruit and vegetables, a category that is suffering a worrying decline in consumption both on the Italian and EU markets. The sector is penalized by the new EU regulation on packaging (PPWR) approved a few days ago by the European Parliament during the last session of the legislature. Despite the indisputable improvements made to the text, due to the important work carried out by all representatives of the agri-food and industrial sector, the absurd ban on the use of disposable plastic packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables up to 1,5 kg remains".
This is stated by Guglielmo Garagnani, a candidate representing the agricultural world in the European elections on the list of Brothers of Italy (North-East constituency), convinced that "we will have to explain to the Brussels bureaucrats that plastic, especially if 100% recyclable, is not an absolute evil as it allows the preservation of food and reduces food waste and scraps. It is paradoxical - adds Garagnani - that the European Union finances fair campaigns to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables especially among the youngest, only to then in fact strongly hinder it, for example by removing the possibility of using trays for smaller portions. How do they think in Brussels that strawberries or a pack of delicate and excellent Vignola IGP cherries will be sold tomorrow? This is certainly not the way to support consumption and the fruit and vegetable supply chain itself, it is not by ideologically demonizing a fundamental material such as plastic, which in Italy boasts an excellent recycling supply chain, that environmental problems are solved".
“It will be my commitment – concludes the agricultural candidate of Fdi – , during the next European legislature, to work to remove the ban on the use of plastic for fruit and vegetable packaging up to 1,5 kg, since the entry into force of the regulation has been set for 2030. Furthermore, it will be necessary to monitor the national implementing regulations, to avoid the introduction of further barriers for single-use packaging, especially for fruit and vegetables”.
