Report: Agri-food businesses concerned about exports
Veneto-based companies, Brexit and tariffs are eroding confidence
‘But only 5 per cent of export turnover would be affected’
Francesca Lorandi – Optimism is waning amongst companies in the Veneto region’s agri-food sector: this is due to Brexit and the risk that the tariffs threatened by Trump may become a reality. Last year, 46 per cent of firms in the sector said they were confident about turnover and employment levels at the end of 2016: today that figure has fallen to 34.9 per cent, with the belief that Italy tops the list of the most promising markets (for 73 per cent of companies) followed by the Eurozone countries (for 11.9 per cent). North America is chosen by 8% of entrepreneurs, and the Trump era is certainly having an impact. ‘Yet the US president tends to change his position by as much as 180 degrees from one day to the next,’ says Riccardo Illy, chairman of the Trieste-based group of the same name specialising in coffee production. And Matteo Zoppas, head of San Benedetto and president of Confindustria Veneto, is even more hopeful: “To date, no bureaucratic process has been initiated to introduce these tariffs,” he explains, emphasising that “of the 4.8 billion in turnover from Veneto’s agri-food exports, only 5 per cent would be affected by these tariffs, so the impact would be less severe than feared”.
