by Maria Teresa Manuelli

The rice growers of Italy total a whopping 4,194, so many the country has become the leading rice producer and exporter in Europe. Total surface given over to the cereal grain is over 227,000 hectares and Italy's rice crops get larger every year.

Recent figures supplied by Paolo Carrà, president of the National Rice Association (Ente Nazionale Risi), show Italians' passion for rice is on an upward trend: cultivated land is increasing by 3%, with Piedmont in the lead, followed by Lombardy. Rice, however, is grown throughout the Italian 'Boot', starting with Sicily where it first landed with the region's Arab settlers.

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Fonte: Italy24