The food sector in Sardinia is experiencing an unprecedented paradox: while consumption and employment are holding up, businesses are increasingly struggling to find qualified personnel. In the Sardinian artisanal food sector, 71.2% of bakers and pasta makers are unavailable, and 65% of pastry chefs, ice cream makers, and canners are unavailable. This is according to the latest analysis by the Confartigianato Sardegna Research Office, based on Unioncamere-ANPAL data: Sardinian food and beverage businesses expect to hire 3,780 new workers, but 1,370 of these (36.2%) are considered "difficult" to find.
"The data paints a bittersweet picture," comments Giacomo Meloni, president of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna . "On the one hand, the Sardinian food sector is extremely dynamic and hungry for skills; on the other, an invisible barrier prevents supply and demand from meeting."
Although the overall data places Sardinia in 13th place in Italy for criticality (below the national average of 38.6%), the situation worsens when we analyze the beating heart of our economy: craftsmanship.
The real "red flag" concerns top-notch professions such as artisan bakers, pasta makers, pastry chefs, and ice cream makers : Sardinia, in the national ranking, ranks 8th for difficulty in finding positions, with a percentage of 65.1%, well above the national average of 56%. Specifically: for artisan bakers and pasta makers, out of 660 expected openings on the island, 71.2% are difficult to find (10th place in Italy), while for artisan pastry chefs, ice cream makers, and canners, difficulty affects 45% of searches (90 out of 200).
"Seeing that over 71% of Sardinian artisan bakers and pasta makers are unable to find suitable candidates," he adds, "is a wake-up call we cannot ignore. It's not just workers that are lacking, but the specific skills that make our typical product unique. We risk stifling the growth of 'Made in Sardinia' not for lack of orders, but for lack of manpower and talent ." "Our artisan businesses, which represent nearly 20% of the regional food sector, are ready to invest and hire, but they cannot be left alone in the challenge of generational turnover," Meloni emphasizes. "We need , before this wealth of knowledge is lost forever."
