The Minister of Agriculture, Stefano Patuanelli, signed an agreement between the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies (MIPAAF) and Amazon to protect Italian artisanal food and wine excellence on sale on Amazon.
The Department of the Central Inspectorate for Quality Protection and Fraud Repression (ICQRF) and Amazon will strengthen their existing collaboration to facilitate the identification and reporting of intellectual property rights violations of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographic Origin (PGO) products, and of unfair practices related to correct consumer information on food.
“The protection of the quality of agrifood products represents for Italy one of the main goals of the agrifood policy, since our country has the highest number of PDO and PGO products in Europe. This agreement with Amazon, which in recent years has implemented several programs and technological innovations aimed at protecting customers, sellers and brands, confirms the quality of the work done so far with the ICQRF. Moreover, this agreement will lead to renewed support and greater protection for Italian agriculture and the country's huge agrifood heritage” said the Minister of Agriculture Stefano Patuanelli.
"We are delighted to be signing this agreement with the Italian Ministry of Agricultural Policies. It’s the first agreement of this kind that Amazon has signed with any government worldwide to protect Italian food and wine excellence, by supporting the small businesses who produce these products. The agreement is good news for our customers all over the world. They can enjoy Italian delicacies knowing that the products they see on our store are genuine products of the highest quality,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President of Customer Trust and Partner Support at Amazon.
"This agreement with the MIPAAF represents an important collaboration between public and private sectors for the protection of Italian food and wine products. It ensures a safe shopping experience and helps the recovery of our economy through exports. We are pleased to make our contribution with Amazon's broader commitment to support the 18,000 Italian SMBs that sell on Amazon, promote Made in Italy products all over the world, and protect brands from counterfeiting,” said Mariangela Marseglia, Country Manager, Amazon.it and Amazon.es.
Amazon is continuously investing in accelerating the digitalization of Italian SMBs, notably through programs such as Accelera con Amazon. During the pandemic, Amazon invested 16 billion euros to support SMBs around the world. In 2020, Italian small and medium-sized enterprises exported products worth more than €600 million via Amazon, and over 200 Italian SMBs selling on Amazon surpassed €1 million in sales for the first time in 2020. Italian SMBs have also created over 50,000 jobs in Italy to date to support their businesses online.
The growth of SMBs goes hand in hand with the protection of their brands.
We are highly committed to serving our customers and selling partners, and to protecting our store from bad actors. In 2020 alone, we invested over $700 million and dedicated more than 10,000 employees to stopping fraud, counterfeit and abuse. By using a combination of advanced machine learning capabilities and expert human investigators, we have built robust proactive controls and industry-leading tools for brands—including Brand Registry, Project Zero and Transparency— to protect our store from bad actors. In 2020 we also created the Counterfeit Crimes Unit, a global team supporting law enforcement efforts around the globe that has made good progress in its first year, such as providing in-depth referrals and evidence of over 250 counterfeiters for criminal investigation, and has filed civil litigation against 64 counterfeiters in the US.
Establishing a collaboration with a government is a very important step forward in holding bad actors accountable. As we recently stressed in our blueprint for private and public sector action, preventing counterfeiting across the industry requires retailers, logistics providers, customs and government bodies to work together. We are proud to work with the MIPAAF and the ICQRF to protect agrifood products, which are very important for Italy’s economy, and for which the country is renowned worldwide.
Italian SMBs selling on Amazon are already benefitting from the actions Amazon is putting in place to protect their products and their brands, and the agreement with the Italian Ministry of Agriculture will take the protection of our customers, brands and store a step further.
Molino Bongiovanni, a company based in Mondovì (CN) and led since the 2000s by young Aldo Bongiovanni, who has been producing flours for three generations. Founded in 1880 by Aldo's grandfather, the company initially focused on the production of soft wheat flours. Then Aldo and his sister Micaela oriented the family business towards a path of radical change, taking over a stone mill, received as a gift from their parents, and starting the production of alternative flours from other cereal sources (oats, hemp, spelt, etc).
In 2004 they started the digitalization of the company, with a dedicated e-commerce store. Currently the company sells flour and natural foods of different types for a total of about 90,000 products, of which 18,000 organic. In 2010 Aldo strengthened its online presence by selling on Amazon, an operation that has allowed a significant increase in turnover. Today 50% of the company’s total turnover is generated by sales on Amazon.
Aldo Bongiovanni: "I am grateful to Amazon for the programs carried out to protect brands: during the pandemic, I registered the Bongiovanni brand on Amazon Brand Registry and enrolled some of our products in Amazon Transparency. These are valuable tools for sellers like us because they allow us to enhance our brand, protect our products from unfair competition, and ensure our customers buy authentic products."
Leoni Randolfo is based in Ariccia, in the province of Rome, in the famous Castelli Romani area, where for three generations it has been producing one of the area's most typical products: porchetta.
Founded in 1940 by Augusto Leoni, the company was run first by his son Randolfo and then by his nephews Augusto and Riccardo.
The brothers Augusto and Riccardo are committed to renewing the company by aiming at increasingly sustainable production, while maintaining the traditional method for the preparation of their main product.
In 2016, understanding the opportunity to integrate the traditional sales channel with the online one, they created their e-commerce site and in 2017 they started selling on Amazon.it. Thanks to the Amazon store, during the pandemic they experienced a growth of +162% on online sales compared to the previous year.
Augusto Leoni: "The protection of the authenticity and quality of Porchetta di Ariccia has always been our mission: for this reason, over the years we have formed the Consortium of Ariccia Producers and obtained the certification of Protected Geographic Origin (PGO). Four years ago, as soon as we arrived on Amazon, we joined the Amazon Brand Registry program and recently we joined Transparency to start protecting our first products. We are very satisfied with these programs offered by Amazon because they help us to protect the authenticity of our brand, increasing the recognition of the quality of our products and the trust of customers, with a more general positive impact on our sales in Italy and abroad”.
For more info on Brand Registry, Transparency and other Amazon Brand Protection programs please visit https://brandservices.amazon.com/
Read about the recent agreement Amazon signed with the Italian Trade Agency that helped the ‘Amazon Made in Italy’ showcase expand globally.
