Agriculture

Fruit and vegetables, bill ready for wholesale market reform

The moves to make the system more efficient according to Italmercati President Massimo Pallottini

by Silvia Marzialetti

23 April 2026

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Massimo Pallottini, president of Italmercati (22 structures distributed throughout Italy, 7 million tonnes of goods handled per year, EUR 11 billion in turnover), tells Il Sole 24 Ore about the strategy to relaunch wholesale markets.

The first point on the agenda is the promotion of a project law - already stamped by the Minister of Agriculture, Francesco Lollobrigida - that classifies markets on the basis of the strategic matrix. 'Nobody wants to close the smaller markets,' he explains, 'but they must have another function.

The numbers of the "excess of fragmentation undermining competitiveness" are contained in the latest Italmercati-Ismea-Censis report, which by 2025 photographs more than 130 active structures in Italia, about six times those of Spain or France.

In addition to the managing bodies, the bill is shared by operators and the world of production. 'It is in everyone's interest,' says Pallottini, 'that these infrastructures be reduced, because only then would they be able to catalyse the resources of the supply chain and recover a function that is not only commercial, but also distributive, logistical and product valorisation.

The 200 million NRP is still distributed to the whole sector. "Resources must go to those who perform a function," he says, "not to fake markets, or residuals.

The bill will have to go through the State-Regions Conference, because the competence for markets is regional, but Pallottini's aim is to ignite 'national attention'.

Second point on the agenda, an old 'fix' of Rome's Massimo Pallottini, to give strength to the market: the Consulta. Presented during Macfrut the Italmercati-Fedagromercati initiative (with the participation of Coldiretti, Confagricoltura, Cia), aims at recovering a voice that has too often paid the price of fragmentation. "It is the interlocutor that was missing to push the sector towards shared strategic goals," he says.

Which, translated into a strategic vision (very ambitious for a country burdened by a heavy infrastructure gap) means transforming agri-food centres into interconnected logistics hubs, capable of integrating the port, rail and freight village systems, 'to optimise the movement of goods and increase the added value of products'.

The last step of the project focuses on recovering the relationship with large-scale distribution (another actor that the Consulta aspires to co-opt). A process that - President Pallottini is convinced - also passes through the programming of different timetables.
"We must move from the night to the daytime to intercept new opportunities, he says.

The president of Italmercati explains how, after a period of fatigue, the world of large-scale distribution is moving closer to the markets, 'driven by the growing demand for localism, which only the markets can support'.
Emblematic is the agreement made with Gros (Gruppo Romano Supermercati, 205 outlets in Lazio), interested in launching a new line dedicated to local zero-kilometre products.
And then there is the issue of young people, destined to inherit the profession. 'The night-time range is not for them,' he concludes.