Prato’s recycled Cardato fabric is set to gain European recognition as a PGI

Brussels – Granting the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status to “Cardato riciclato pratese” is close to being recognised as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). This is the gist of the initiative presented in Brussels, on the sidelines of the plenary session of the European Committee of the Regions. “Very recently, the PGI has also been extended to manufactured and artisanal products, and this is Tuscany’s first application for PGI status, which is being scrutinised very closely. “Cardato (carded) is something that originated about a century, a century and a half ago,” explained the President of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani. “It was recycling rags and ‘cenci’ (tatters), as they’re called in the Tuscan dialect. Well, if we look closely, it’s the first modern form of the circular economy: the reuse of fabric which, through modern technology, finds in its fibres an even more authentic opportunity to make the product highly competitive on the market,” he emphasised. From history to the present day, then. And the PGI designation is “a powerful message for sustainability choices too, which are being made at European level.”

The initiative was the focus of a conference organised at the Tuscany Regional Government’s offices in Brussels, attended by, among others, the mayor of Prato, Matteo Biffoni, the head of the European Socialist Party (PES) delegation to the Committee of the Regions, Luca Menesini, and the MEP and former mayor of Florence, Dario Nardella. “The point of the initiative is that recycled Cardato is Prato; it is the history of Prato. Now that we talk so much about the ecological transition and the circular economy, we must bear in mind that while this is a relatively recent development – spanning ten or twenty years – in Prato it is a long-standing tradition” because “even over a hundred years ago, it recognised the value in what everyone else considered waste,” emphasised Cristina Manetti, Regional Councillor for Culture and Relations with the Tuscan Delegation to the EU. “PGI recognition would be a truly significant achievement” and “it is what we are calling for” because “the protection of these production methods is important both to enshrine them in the economic history of a region and to safeguard them in international markets,” explained Leonardo Marras, Tuscany’s Councillor for Productive Activities, emphasising that the Region expects the European recognition to be granted swiftly – within a matter of months. 

Prato’s Cardato is the first Tuscan artisan product to be awarded PGI status, but it certainly won’t be the last, paving the way for other applications. The Region expects a swift decision from the EU: the long-awaited European recognition could arrive within a matter of months.