Paola Lisi, Italian Trade Commissioner Doha Office
Doha: The trade volume between Qatar and Italy reached €4bn from January to August of this year and Italy ranks fourth among suppliers’ countries of Qatar, said an official.
The Italian Embassy in Qatar with the Italian Trade Agency, the trade promotion section of the Embassy, concluded the ‘Week of Italian Cuisine in Qatar’ initiative held in Cucina restaurant at Marriott Marquis City Center Doha Hotel, recently.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Paola Lisi, Italian Trade Commissioner Doha Office said, “In the first eight months of this year the total trade between Qatar and Italy reached the value of €4bn, with an increase of plus 140 percent compared to the same period of 2021 which is really a big increase. We think that there will be many opportunities to develop the future in all the fields and we can find new ways to cooperate with Qatari authorities and companies.”
"Italy was the fourth largest importer of goods to Qatar in 2022 and it is worth pointing out that the total bilateral trade in the entire year 2021 was approximately €3.3bn. Also, Italy ranks 4th among the suppliers’ countries of Qatar, after India and before Germany, and it is the 9th destination market of Qatari exports,” she added.
Elaborating about the Italian food exports to Qatar, Lisi said that the total value of Italian food products exported to Qatar during the first eight months of 2022 exceeded €39m, with an increase of more than 75 percent compared to the same period in 2021. “A wide range of Italian food products are exported to Qatar which include pasta, bakery products, cheese, dairy products, vegetable sauces and preserves, chocolate products, olive oil. The variety of Italian food production is so extensive that we believe it is possible to increase the offer of our products on this market.”
Lisi reiterated that there are many opportunities that are developing in new sectors because we know historically Qatar’s economy is strong in energy and infrastructure but now there is a steady increase in sectors like luxury goods, food and beverage. "We see a lot of requests in Qatar for Italian food and beverage and that is why we are celebrating it with the Italian week of cuisine. This is also shown by a lot of restaurants that are opening all over the country as they are all brands from Italian chefs and restaurants, some of them are for the very first time run by Michelin-starred chef from Italy.”
There are several Italian companies in Qatar, and they deal mostly with the following sectors - logistics, food & beverage, architectural and engineering solutions, energy and oil & gas, banking, defence, construction, furniture.
Italian Trade Agency is working to improve the supply of goods from Italy to here and there are agreements with distribution chains in order to improve the quantity of Italian products in supermarkets in Qatar. “We are willing to improve the number of Italian products and also the number of Qatari tourists to Italy. After COVID-19 we have seen a steady rise in the number of tourists which is evident by the visa request to the embassy, and we are sure that this number will increase and this will contribute to rise in bilateral relations between the two countries,” she noted.
She further said that after FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar candidates itself to be a major tourism destination, for this reason "we believe that especially the lifestyle sector – food, goods, luxury sectors will see improvement and we are sure that Italian products will play a major part in this. Also, there are a lot of high-end hotels that are opening that are using the Italian design products.”
