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The historical Competence of the Chambers of Commerce in the field of Wholesale Price Collection

The wholesale price collection of agri-food products is one of the the Chambers of Commerce’s historical competences. The law on Commodity Exchanges, to which the Chambers of Commerce must ensure organisational support, dates back to 1913. The Chambers of Commerce are held responsible for metrology and price lists ever since the legislator’s prescription in 1955, to which refers and confers legal validity the Civil Code Article 1474. Thus, the Chambers of Commerce fulfil the role of bringing market transparency to the benefit of enterprises and consumers, as well as public bodies which they support in the activities of market monitoring and economic policy formulation.

From Meteora to BMTI

In 2000, the Italian Chambers of Commerce System seizes the opportunity represented by digital technologies – applying them to the system of traditional commodity exchanges, and taking the path that finally led to the creation of the Italian Online Commodity Exchange: the regulated online market for agricultural, agro-energy, agri-food, and fishery products, and logistics services. As a matter of fact, the joint-stock company called Meteora was constituted with the double objective of bringing innovation into the negotiations of commodity exchanges by promoting digital tools, and making homogeneous the price collection of the Chambers of Commerce.
Meteora’s mission was to support Chambers of Commerce in fulfilling their historical competence in the field of market regulation, monitoring, and transparency. The evolution of the legislation that regulates the agricultural and agri-food sectors – which began in 2001 and ever since marks a period of experiments in online negotiations – led to the adoption of a regulation, by the Italian Minister of Agricultural and Forestry Policies, on the online functioning of commodity exchanges in Italy.
By means of the Italian Minister of Agricultural and Forestry Policies’ Decree no. 174/2006, amended in 2012 – which regulates the online functioning of the system adopted by commodity exchanges in Italy – the Italian Online Commodity Exchange is established whilst the company is transformed into a joint-stock consortium company named BMTI.

The Development of the Chambers of Commerce’s Competence in the field of Prices and Rates

During the reorganisation of the Chambers of Commerce’s competences, the legislator restored and raised the Chambers of Commerce’s competence in the field of price and rate collection, and that of consumer protection and competitiveness of enterprises and territories through economic information activities.
Always in 2016, following the dissolution of the Infomercati Consortium, the Ministry of Economic Development entrusted Unioncamere with the management and dissemination of the prices collected in wholesale markets, and BMTI became the company of the Italian Chambers of Commerce System that performs such duties.

The Establishment of CUN: BMTI in support of their Functioning

In 2017, our company took on a new task consisting in the management of the technical secretariat of CUN (single national commissions), also by publishing information reports which contain market data that help the activities of CUN themselves. In 2017, indeed, the legislator adopts the regulation for the establishment and functioning of CUN, which formulate at national level target prices and market trends, in a regulated and transparent manner, for the products of those supply chains that represent the agri-food system the most. This task further enhances the central role that BMTI plays to improve market transparency and economic information dissemination.

Today, we communicate with institutions and enterprises to understand their interests and needs, making available our expertise and commitment. We are engaged in disseminating information and creating tools that can be useful to the community, and contribute to the development of an inclusive and sustainable economic system.