Muttersprachler hier: your daughter is unequivocally right.
One reason it can't be "are" and "historical present" (or whatever) is because of the placement of first.
"They are first made in Italy" indicates a temporal sequence in which the next action will be one that describes what happens to the pizzas after they are made. For example, "They are first made in Italy, then they are frozen and shipped to Germany."
Also, it's weird to describe this just as "simple present/simple past" -- these are also passive constructions. In fact, that might be the best argument to use with the teacher. The German equivalent would be:
"Pizzen *wurden* zuerst in Italien gemacht. Jetzt *werden* sie überall auf der Welt gegessen."