The message is clear: «Stop counterfeit food, immediately more controls and clear rules for products imported into Italy». The president of Coldiretti Sardegna, Battista Cualbu , is asking for it loudly, present at the two-day protest at Brenner, organized to protect Made in Italy and defend the work of the thousands of Sardinian and Italian agricultural entrepreneurs. On the agenda of the event - which in these hours has brought together members from all over Italy, reaching and exceeding 10 thousand participants - the protection of consumer health and the defense of the income of our Italian companies stand out.

«Today we are here at Brenner because it is important to monitor the entry of products into Italy too. We cannot prevent them from entering as ours enter but we want compliance with the rules", underlined Cualbu. Rules that must be "equal for everyone, with clear and transparent labels so that the consumer knows exactly what he is going to buy and eat. We ask all control bodies to intensify supervision so that these products do not acquire Italian citizenship."

In the wake of the requests, with the collaboration of the police, the demonstrators are checking the contents of trucks, refrigerated trucks and tankers in transit, an action "made necessary by the uncontrolled arrivals of food from abroad which often do not respect the same rules of the national ones and thus create unfair competition with Italian production, causing the prices paid to farmers to collapse", reads a press release from the trade association.

At Brennero, with the many representatives of the island's companies, also the director Luca Saba . Forces united to "claim a fundamental principle, that of reciprocity". «We want the same rules that are imposed on Italian and Sardinian farmers – underlines Saba – to be imposed for goods arriving from abroad. We are here to check what comes from outside to show the scandal of something that confuses international agriculture with Italian agriculture, imports often without adequate controls."

According to the Coldiretti/Ixe' survey spread at Brenner, over 8 out of 10 Italians (83%) ask for a stop to imports of agri-food products that do not respect the same rules as Italian ones regarding food safety, the environment and labor protection. The collection of signatures, which can be supported by signing in all the farmers' markets of Campagna Amica and in the Coldiretti offices (it will also be promoted on social media with the hashtag #nofakeinitaly), «also aims to finally put into transparency - continues Coldiretti - all those products that are still anonymous today and which represent about a fifth of Italians' spending and include symbolic foods starting from bread. In fact, there is no obligation to indicate the origin of the grain used on loaves and rolls, as happens with pasta. And the same goes for all derivatives such as biscuits, rusks, crackers and the like."