Monitoring Cereal Stocks in a Performance-Based Cap: The Italian ‘Granaio Italia’ Register in the EU Framework

Abstract

The Italian “Granaio Italia” system is a newly established national electronic cereal stock register, integrated into the National Agricultural Information System (SIAN) and addressed to farms, cooperatives, storage facilities and commercial operators exceeding product-specific thresholds. Although formally conceived as a quarterly reporting obligation on physical cereal stocks, it functions substantively as an information infrastructure supporting agricultural and market policies at both the national and EU levels. The article reconstructs its regulatory genesis from the 2021 Budget Law to the most recent implementing decrees, and analyses its material and personal scope, as well as the operational rules for electronic reporting, including the role of agricultural assistance centres and the interaction with internal management systems. Particular attention is devoted to key interpretative issues (identification of obligated operators, annual thresholds versus quarterly reporting, coordination with other mandatory records) and to the sanctioning regime, now fully operational. Finally, the system is situated within the EU framework on common market organization, agricultural statistics (including SAIO), and the CAP 2023–2027 delivery model, with comparative references to other Member States.