Made in Italy: Immigrant labor behind half of all food products

Rome: Immigrants accounted for at least half of the manpower going into locally made food products in 2022, according a recent report.

The report titled “Made in Immigritaly” shows that immigrants to Italy were behind at least half of all food products made in the country in 2022 — even though official government data showed that a total of 362,000 immigrants had worked in the food sector that year for only 31.7% of days worked.

The report, commissioned by the FAI-CISL union, highlighted however that there are many “invisible” workers who take an active part in Italian food production. It said that official agriculture ministry data is “distorted” due labor exploitation practices being a major risk in the sector.

It also highlighted the fact that almost half of judicial measures and investigations conducted between 2017 and 2021 were in relation to cases concerning this sector, further stressing the role of illegal labor practices.

“There is no production chain or sector of agrifood Made in Italy in which migrant workers do not have a significant or irreplaceable role,” the report stated.

Italy’s agrifood sector exceeded 600 billion euros in revenue and 64 billion euros in exports in 2023.

The report said that the main national origins of people working in the agrifood sector were Romania, Morocco, India, Albania, and Senegal, according to official figures. However, the government figures do not reflect the nationalities of irregular migrants working under illegal work practices.

The document said that this could be one of the reasons why workers from sub-Saharan Africa were underrepresented in official numbers.

Some 61% of laborers in Italy’s agrifood sector came from non-EU nations while 39% came from EU countries.

FAI-CISL Secretary General Luigi Sbarra meanwhile said that attitudes to foreign labor still had to change, especially in the government:

“Migration has taken place and it will continue to do so. Let’s learn to govern it and plan it. Migrants will be the new Italians,” he stressed while calling for the issue of immigration to be depoliticised.