2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
The Modica chocolate, shiny to the eye, grainy and fragrant, with very high percentages of cocoa (60% minimum!), of unrivaled flavor, almost the archetype of every chocolate, is represented by a Protection consortium and excellent producers - in the shortlist Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, Di Lorenzo, the Caffè dell’Arte, the Rosy Bar, Don Puglisi and the Adamo coffee.
Unique, historical, fascinating, "cult" product, as Franco Ruta, owner of Antica Dolceria Bonajuto (one of the promoters of the Consortium, but released in 2005) defined it, is rightly presented as a tourist attraction, a true excellence.
Ah, of course also from Lidl.
What does the discount store that has created a line of premium foods have to do with it, whose slogan reads "luxury for all" with Modica chocolate?
Not content with hosting it on his shelves he put it in special offer: tablets of 100 grams, a 1 euro and 49.
Open up heaven.
Administrators, artisans and producers have risen against the discount chain, which is able to sell Modica chocolate bars for fifty cents less than other supermarkets.
Those bars that in airports, in some restaurants, or in specialty food shops even reach 4 euros.
Now, as Marisa Fumagalli wrote in Corriere "the process is underway to obtain the European PGI (Protected Geographical Identification) brand for Modica chocolate and, it goes without saying, the" sale "of the product appears to be in contradiction".
Too bad that the process for recognition, started by the protection consortium and the local Chamber of Commerce 10 years ago, has not yet brought the desired results despite the many announcements.
On the other hand, Lidl is on the market, and if it manages to sell a product that meets the production criteria at competitive prices, even if in a not exactly elegant package, it is not clear where the scandal is.
The Consortium would do better not to allow that, as in the case of the Italiamo brand for Lidl, Modica chocolate is produced in Viterbo and only packaged in Frigintini (Ragusa), then sold by companies that have nothing to do with the Hyblean territory..
The risk is, if not to sell off the image of Modica's chocolate, with its practically uninterrupted flow of visitors, to devalue its prestige and consideration.
And this, there is no Consortium, Chamber of Commerce or administrator who can afford it.