Federalimentare

About Federalimentare

Federalimentare is the Italian federation representing and promoting companies that produce food and beverages. Founded in 1982 within Confindustria, it works to support the growth and development of Italy’s food and drink industry, which it describes as the country’s second manufacturing sector and a major contributor to GDP, employment, exports, and the national trade balance.

The federation serves a broad industrial base through nine category associations and thousands of member companies. Its role is to advocate for the sector’s interests in Italy, at EU level, and internationally, while supporting a model of food production that is healthy, balanced, sustainable, safe, and high quality, and that protects Made in Italy excellence from imitation and counterfeiting.

Core Values

• Made in Italy excellence: The federation promotes the quality, identity, and reputation of Italian food and beverage production, with a strong focus on protecting it from imitation and Italian sounding.
• Sustainability: It emphasizes environmentally responsible production, including energy efficiency, packaging management, by-product recovery, and food waste reduction across the supply chain.
• Safety and quality: Federalimentare consistently highlights food safety, food security, and compliance with national and EU rules as essential foundations for consumer trust and industry competitiveness.
• Innovation and competitiveness: It supports research, technological development, and training as tools to strengthen competitiveness, especially for SMEs, and to help the sector adapt to changing consumer needs.
• Balanced nutrition and consumer information: The federation promotes informed, balanced dietary choices through reformulated products, nutrition labeling, and responsible communication.

Unique Aspects

• Large sectoral mandate: Federalimentare federates nine category associations and 6,850 production companies, giving it a broad representative role across the Italian food and beverage industry.
• Brussels presence: It maintains an office in Brussels at Confindustria’s headquarters to engage closely with EU institutions and monitor the legislative process affecting the sector.
• CIBUS creation and promotion role: In collaboration with Fiere di Parma, Federalimentare helped create CIBUS, a major international food exhibition and a flagship platform for Made in Italy agrifood promotion.
• Leadership in agrifood research networks: It coordinates the technical secretariat of CL.A.N. with ART-ER and presides over the SPES GEIE consortium, which brings together nine food-industry federations to support EU research and innovation participation.
• Strong institutional footprint: Beyond advocacy, the federation operates across specialized areas such as nutrition policy, labeling, environmental policy, parliamentary relations, EU relations, and market studies, making it a multi-channel institutional hub for the sector.