BOLOGNA — Italy’s organic food and wine sector reached 6.9 billion euro in sales in 2025, cementing the country’s position as Europe’s leading organic producer as the joint Slow Wine Fair and SANA Food closed at BolognaFiere on February 24.
Nomisma data presented at the event’s Rivoluzione Bio (Organic Revolution) summit showed a 6.2 percent rise on the previous year, with household consumption at 5.5 billion euro and out-of-home dining – restaurants, canteens, catering – contributing 1.35 billion euro. Exports reached 3.9 billion euro in 2024, up seven percent. Italy now counts 84,000 certified organic operators and farms nearly one in five hectares organically.
Ethical gatekeepers
Nomisma identified out-of-home dining as a strategic growth channel, noting that restaurateurs increasingly treat organic sourcing as an ethical commitment rather than marketing. The finding lands weeks after Italian cuisine gained UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status in December 2025, the first complete national culinary tradition so recognised.
The three-day fair drew 16,000 visitors, up six percent on 2025, with 350 international buyers from 30 countries and more than 2,000 business meetings. Over 1,100 wineries exhibited, more than 60 percent certified organic or biodynamic, alongside 300 food producers.
This year’s defining theme was giustizia sociale (social justice). Panels featured young winemakers, female viticulturists, and inclusion projects, acknowledging that more than half of seasonal vineyard workers in regions like the Langhe are migrants, and that caporalato (illegal labour intermediation) persists across Italy’s most prestigious wine areas.
“Organoleptic quality alone will no longer be enough to give wine its value,” said Giancarlo Gariglio, coordinator of the Slow Wine Coalition. A dialogue between Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi and Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini with young winemakers reinforced the message.
Barbara Nappini, president of Slow Food Italia, distilled the stakes when she said food equated to value, not merely price, and that every player in the supply chain needed to contribute to a just, good and clean future.
The next edition runs February 21 to 23, 2027.
