Planetary passion pizza, 15 billion euro business

With a turnover that rises to over 15 billion euros a year, pizza is confirmed as a treasure of Made in Italy, a symbol of the success of the Mediterranean diet in the world.

This is what Coldiretti affirms on the occasion of the International Pizza Day which is celebrated on 17 January.

In slices, thin, thick, crunchy or soft, pizza is confirmed, recalls the Coldiretti, one of the most versatile historical dishes of Italian cuisine, so much so that in 2017 UNESCO proclaimed the Art of Neapolitan pizza makers intangible heritage of humanity .

But pizza is also the backbone of an economic system made up of 121,000 premises in Italy where it is prepared and served, thanks to an employment estimated by Coldiretti at 100,000 full-time employees and an equal 100,000 at the weekend.

In Italy, Coldiretti estimates, 2.7 billion pizzas are baked every year which in terms of ingredients mean throughout the year 200 million kilos of flour, 225 million kilos of mozzarella, 30 million kilos of olive and 260 million kilos of tomato sauce.

A daily work on which, underlines Coldiretti, "however the effects of climate change weigh with the damage caused by drought and bad weather in Italy which have cut the production of basic foods of the Mediterranean diet with the collapse of 30% for the extra virgin olive,

The passion for pizza, continues Coldiretti, is planetary, with Americans being the biggest consumers with 13 kilos each, while Italians lead the ranking in Europe with 7.8 kilos per year, ahead of the Spanish (4.3 ), French and Germans (4.2), British (4), Belgians (3.8), Portuguese (3.6) and Austrians who, with 3.3 kilos of pizza per capita per year, close the ranking.

"A diffusion that - notes Coldiretti - has favored the development of recipes that have nothing to do with the original, through the use of the most imaginative ingredients, starting from tropical fruits".