While Southern Italy recorded a 7.1 percent annual growth in exports, the islands declined by 19 percent. Sardinia, with a 21.1 percent decline, is among the regions with the worst performance in Italy , preceded only by Friuli-Venezia Giulia and followed by Sicily, which lost 18.1 percent.
Thus Silvio Lai , MP and regional secretary of the Democratic Party of Sardinia, commenting on the data released today by ISTAT on regional exports for the first quarter of 2026 , compared with the same period in 2025. Numbers which, according to the Democratic Party parliamentarian, «photograph a reality that the Government continues to underestimate».
"This isn't," Lai states, "just a decline attributable to petroleum products or international energy dynamics. ISTAT data highlight a widespread decline in sectors that represent a key part of Sardinia's economy: agriculture (-46.6%), food and beverages (-34.3%), chemicals, metals, and manufacturing . According to an analysis of ISTAT data, the reduction in Sardinia's exports exceeds 700 million euros compared to the same period of the previous year. This figure cannot be dismissed as a simple economic fluctuation. On the contrary, it strongly highlights a structural issue affecting the competitiveness of the island regions."
"For years," Lai continues, "we have been denouncing the rising costs of maritime transport for goods and semi-finished products to and from Sardinia. Companies on the island continue to incur higher logistics costs than their competitors on the mainland, without the introduction of effective offsetting tools . Added to this is the impact of new European rules on emissions from maritime transport. With the extension of the ETS to the shipping sector, a growing share of the costs borne by operators is inevitably being passed along the logistics chain, impacting the final costs of businesses and citizens."
In light of the situation, the regional secretary of the Democratic Party announced his intention to urge the Parliamentary Commission for Combating the Disadvantages of Insularity to " immediately initiate a specific study on the evolution of logistics and maritime transport costs and their impact on exports from island regions."
"We will also," Lai concludes, "submit a request to the Government to make public the data relating to the higher logistics costs incurred by Sardinian and Sicilian companies compared to those on the mainland, and to clarify how it intends to use the resources deriving from the maritime ETS to offset the effects these costs have on the island territories."
(Unioneonline/lf)