The World Championship was launched in 2007 and is now in its 10th edition. In 17 years, it has succeeded in establishing itself worldwide through events and communication, it has drawn the perimeter of “what is or is not Genoese Pesto” (the official recipe of the Championship has become the global reference model), it has contributed to greater consumer awareness and thus to the affirmation of Ligurian PDOs, and finally it has caused a “trigger effect” by managing to give voice and image to the entire Ligurian territory and its excellences. Pesto is an increasingly fashionable and widespread sauce.
In pasta sauces it has already taken the lead in international communication for a few years now (estimated at +7% compared to other tomato-based sauces), and the market has become richer, but also flooded with “non-pestoes”, low quality and “informational noise” that threatens to overshadow its Ligurian origins (in the last three months it was mentioned 45% in North America, 27% in Europe – of which Italy 16% – and 28% in the rest of the world).
So on March 23rd, 2024 the Championship will be the celebration it has always been but also a reconfirmation of its cultural and economic identity stronghold to which the Chamber of Commerce is aiming and an opportunity to look to the future (PGI, Sustainability, Marketing).
With the Tenth Finals we are definitely leaving behind the dark period of the pandemic and “digital” championships. In this edition we have been carried along by the good winds of the Ocean Race that the Championship followed in 7 of its legs following the City of Genoa. With them the total number of preliminary rounds (which allow winners to participate by right in the finals in Genoa) will reach the number of 25, from Genoa to Alicante, from Mignanego to Milan to Niamey in Niger, from Cape Town in South Africa to Cornigliano and Padua, to Recco and Rapallo, from Bolzaneto to London, New York and Miami to name a few.
The program is the well-established standard: 100 people will compete in the morning and 10 in the afternoon for the Super Final that will crown the current World Champion (registration will open at the beginning of 2024), 30 as always are the judges, journalists, experts and opinion leaders of the field.