Italian plant nursery industry is increasingly confirming itself as one of the driving forces of the agricultural sector and the whole Italian economy, in terms of production and international trade.

Supporting the positive trend the sector is experiencing in recent years has become the common goal shared by ANVE (National Association of Nurserymen Exporters) and ITA (Italian Trade Agency for the promotion abroad and the internazionalization of Italian companies).

From the collaboration between these two important realities came the idea of the Phytoweb portal: a consultation tool adressed to Italian plant nursery industry, which allows companies to become autonomous in the handling of their plants and in understanding the various phytosanitary requirements, for a correct and effective shipment of the plants from the country of origin to a certain destination.

The project stems from an intuition of ANVE and meets the common need of all Italian plant nursery companies, which are export-oriented, to easily check accurate and updated information about the handling of plants through a specific tool, in a sector dominated by very complex and constantly updated legislation.

In its role as body through which the Government promotes the economic and commercial development of Italian companies in foreign markets, the ITA – Italian Trade Agency has enthusiastically welcomed the idea of the project, actively participating in its implementation.

“The Phytoweb project and the collaboration with ANVE’s nurserymen exporters represents a vision aimed at offering constant and updated support to a sector that provides more than 1 billion exports nowadays –explains Brunella Saccone, Manager of the Agri-Food and Wine Office of ITA – Italian Trade Agency.

An opportunity that we wanted to give to companies and operators in the sector who see in European and non-European countries new and greater potential for market development. Because it is due to their work that the quality of Italian productions and the ability of our nurserymen to be present on international markets are increasingly acknowledged values abroad”.

The vision of ITA – Italian Trade Agency perfectly matches ANVE’s goals.

“The Italian plant nursery industry is the best in the world – underlines ANVE’s President, Luigi Pagliani – And the daily demonstration is the ability of our plants to reach most part of the world.

The strong resilience of Italian plant nursery industry has allowed its operators to overcome the obstacles of the past few years, from the financial crisis to the Covid-19 restrictions, up to the heavy consequences of the Russian-Ukrainan conflict. This is possible because of the solid and collaborative business network established by Italian companies and the strong reputation gained abroad.

Today we aim to increase the functionalities of the web portal and make it more performing for our nurserymen by improving their browsing experience, implementing Third Countries’ regulations and additional features such as printing, content storage, files branding and issuance of additional passport formats.”

But what services does Phytoweb offer?

The web portal is equipped with an easily usable search engine and a constantly updated data archive, aimed at generating informations about compliance with internal handling in the EU and about the import/export to and from Third Countries. In this section nurserymen can also check the quarantin pathogenic species, the authorized and forbidden export plant material and the regulatory references.

Phytoweb also allows nurserymen to carry out the pest risk analysis for their plants, a high standard of phytosanitary quality and safety. Moreover, the system is able to generate a PDF file of the ordinary plant passport and the one for Protected Areas.

ANVE and ITA – Italian Trade Agency are two realities aware of the strategic importance and the great development prospects of the export related to Italian plant nursery industry. A sector that records a continuous growth in demand abroad, reflecting how Italian production represents a real quality index for international markets today.

Phytoweb is the result of this shared awareness.

While ANVE represents the excellence with which the Italian plant nursery industry is now acknowledged worldwide, ITA – Italian Trade Agency has been the partner through which to promote its distinction and value, once again encouraging the presence of Made in Italy in foreign markets, thanks to innovative and cutting-edge tools such as Phytoweb.