The complaint of the Contas protection consortium: “We carry out stringent checks also because in this period the danger of counterfeiting increases dramatically”
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CAGLIARI. While the price of Sardinian IGP lamb soars close to Easter, which traditionally sees it as a protagonist, Italy is invaded by foreign products (55% of the total marketed especially by Romania, Hungary, Spain, Greece and Slovakia. denounces the Consortium for the protection of the lamb of Sardinia Igp (Contas) in the “Day of the Lamb of Sardinia Igp” in the markets of Campagna Amica at the presentation of the survey “Easter lamb”.
The prices of Sardinian lambs, despite the serious economic crisis and the closure of the Horeca channels, have well exceeded 5 euros / kg (paid to the shepherd by live weight) already starting from the second week of March. But even in the months of January and February, when traditionally the price collapses, the average was held at 3.4 euros / kg. In the last week (19 – 26 March) the prices of Sardinian IGP lamb paid to the farmer oscillate on average between 4.70 – 5.30 euros / kg, among the highest averages, reached only in the pre Covid (2019 ) and are at the top in Italy, exceeding the prices of dairy lambs in the Lazio and Tuscany regions (main competitors of Sardinian lamb) which instead (on 25 March), according to Contas calculations on Ismea surveys, between 3 and 3.05 euro / kg (live weight).
«We have and are working on expanding the market and at the same time on a product that, while maintaining the same characteristics, has a longer shelf life. – says the president of Contas Battista Cualbu -. We are proposing on the market with transformers, even new and smaller cuts that on the one hand enhance the entire casing and on the other respond to the new needs of the market. And this – he adds – also allows us, together with other projects we have in the pipeline, to seasonally adjust the presence of lamb on the market which traditionally focuses on winter and early spring. Moreover, thanks also to the latest agreement we signed in recent weeks with the large-scale retail trade, the Sardinian IGP lamb brand is now present on 90% of the most important national brands ».
The Easter market represents about 20% of the annual sales of Sardinian IGP lamb. In this period 130 thousand heads are slaughtered, representing 50% of the total lamb meat made in Italy (relative to the Easter period), which reaches 60% with the 35 thousand Sardinians not marked PGI. Regarding the Igp (in Italy in addition to the lamb of Sardinia there are also the Roman Abbacchio Igp and the Lamb of Central Italy Igp), in the whole vintage, the Sardinian one represents 80% of the certified product with 755 thousand head the 60 thousand of the lamb from central Italy IGP and the 100 thousand of the Roman Abbacchio IGP.
“Our controls are very stringent – assures the director of Contas Alessandro Mazzette – also because the possibility of counterfeiting increases exponentially in this period, given the profit margins that the exchange of nationalities can produce”. (HANDLE).
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