On Thursday 4 February, at 15 pm, the meeting to set up the industrial hemp supply chain table will be held, set up on 00 December last at the Ministry of Agriculture. The 17 members selected in recent months in the consultation process carried out by Undersecretary Giuseppe L'Abbate will take part in the videoconference meeting. At the table, which will last three years and will have consultative and monitoring tasks, will be attended by representatives of the ministries of the Interior, Health, Economic Development, the Environment, the Customs and Monopoly Agency and the Carabinieri for Defense in addition to the three departments of Mipaaf and the supervised bodies Crea, Ismea and Agea. Representing the Regions there will be Puglia, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Piedmont, Umbria and Veneto. The productive world will be represented by six agricultural professional organizations, four central agricultural cooperatives, six national representative organizations as well as six hemp sector associations and two stakeholders. Finally, for the scientific world, the University of Rome La Sapienza and of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
"Let's start the debate in the sector to plan future choices to relaunch and support national hemp production and strengthen supply chain policies - declares the Undersecretary for Agricultural Policies, Giuseppe L'Abbate - The sector will also be able to count on part of the 10 million euros that we have allocated in the last Budget Law. It will be important to make shared and well-balanced choices so that we can give concrete opportunities for the future of the sector ".
Italy with just over 4 thousand hectares, 2018 data, is second in Europe after France, which dominates EU production with 17.900 hectares of industrial hemp. Compared to 1993, European growth is 614% with over 50 hectares.