Verso una politica europea della qualità agroalimentare. Quali strumenti per la competitività?

After the Fischler reform of the year 2003, the Eu has started a complete revision of its policy for agricultural product quality that should be completed by the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011. This paper analyzes the most relevant aspects and offers an evaluation of the options that are still under discussion. The first part of this paper illustrates the most important and peculiar aspects characterizing quality in the agricultural and food sector. Then, after a historical review of Eu policy for agricultural and food quality in the last decades, this paper presents the most common certification tools currently available, aimed at successfully differentiating Agri-food products in order to obtain price premium. In the core of this paper, we analyze and discuss the most important options under discussion with respect to major aspects of the policy for food quality: the reform of Pdo and Pgi, possible modification to the Traditional Specialties Guaranteed (Tsg), possible choices with respect to the possibility of a mandatory indication of the country of origin of the agricultural raw material and the regulation of the use of reserved terms. Moreover, we motivate the need to introduce a new certification system at the Eu level with reference to Integrated Production, and the need for a strong institutional communication campaign and a more effective custom control system at the border of the Eu with respect to minimum quality standards.