In an unusual Christmas season protest on Thursday, Italian farmers brought pigs to parliament to object against the use of foreign food to make classic Italian products such as pasta, mozzarella cheese and prosciutto ham.
Around 33 percent of food products sold in Italy and exported abroad are made using foreign raw materials, said the farmers' union Coldiretti at a campaign called "The Battle for Christmas: Choose Italy."
Setting up a picket at a border point in the Alps, the farmers checked incoming trucks carrying foodstuffs like Lithuanian pork, German mozzarella and Austrian wheat that they said are eventually sold as Italian, Agence France-Presse reported.
Augusto Musardo, 23, a wheat and olive farmer from Lecce in southern Italy told AFP, "Our farms are collapsing! The government should introduce more transparent labeling and block these foreign imports."
The country's biggest prosciutto maker, Parmacotto, has been accused over the past year for selling two out of three hams sold as "Made in Italy" when in fact they are produced by using non-Italian pork, Coldiretti told AFP.
But the company has denied the charges.
"Parmacotto uses raw material bought in Italy for 100 percent of its needs," said a spokesperson to AFP about not increasing the imports.
Coldiretti has received support from Agriculture Minister Nunzia De Girolamo who said the defense of genuine Italian products could be "a way out of the crisis" and accusing "speculators of tricking consumers."
Since 2007, Coldiretti said 36,000 farmers have lost their jobs.
"Eight thousand of those jobs were in the pig farming sector alone -- the equivalent of a large industrial firm. A country in crisis like ours cannot afford it," said Roberto Moncalvo, Coldiretti head, at the protest.
"These imports are out of control. The effect has been violent for us," said Stefano Bellucci, a local councillor from Guardea in central Italy. "The labelling is misleading. It's 'Made in Italy' but only relatively speaking."
