Italy: Three decisive memberships for the IO Pomodoro Nord

During the regular meeting of the OI Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia, held on January 24, 2023 in Parma, the members of the OI accepted the application for membership of the OP Consorzio Casalasco del Pomodoro Soc. Agr. Cooperative and processing companies Casalasco Società Agricola Spa and Valli Estensi Srl.

With these three entries, the PO Pomodoro da Industria of Northern Italy achieves an important objective, that of bringing together 100% of the organized production sector (all the POs present in Northern Italy are members of the OI) and almost all processing industries (more than 99.7%) of tomatoes in the Northern Basin.

The membership of the IO of the PO of Casalasco, which is based in the Cremona region and manages approximately 5,000 hectares of processing tomato crops distributed between the provinces of Piacenza, Cremona and Mantua, completes the picture of OP from northern Italy. The processing company Casalasco Spa, formerly a member of the cooperative of the PO itself and today a private processing company belonging to the QuattroR group, with three plants in Rivarolo del Re (CR), Fontanellato (PR) and Podenzano (PC), is a leading company in the national panorama of "red canned products", with more than 500,000 metric tonnes of tomatoes processed. Finally, Valli Estensi, based in Masi Torello (FE), completes the circle of Ferrarese tomato processing companies that are members of the OI.

With the new entries, the application of common rules and IO’s services are extended to the entire sector. In fact, the OI Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia, an Interprofessional organization recognized by the Ministry, acts on behalf of the members as a super partes entity for the filing of tomato contracts concluded between agricultural and industrial partners, verifying compliance with the commitments included in the annual framework contract; the IO collects and processes key data such as cultivated areas, quantities delivered each week, finished products; it monitors the progress of payments for the raw material, in order to provide operators in the sector with useful information for implementing their own strategy. In addition, the IO carries out institutional lobbying action for the sector and implements coordination projects on cross-cutting issues such as water supply, phytosanitary problems, promotion and support policies for the sector.

The grouping of all economic operators within the IO Pomodoro Nord will allow complete governance of the sector, thus promoting competitiveness and greater authority during discussions with the institutions.

 “These three new entries are a source of great satisfaction – declared Tiberio Rabboni, president of the OI Pomodoro da Industria del Nord Italia. The representation of the players in the industry in northern Italy becomes almost total, and it further strengthens the credibility, authority and regulatory capacity of the Interprofession, which ensures an equal relationship between the two protagonists of the sector, characterized by common rules and objective, and by transparency of commercial relations on both sides, to the benefit of members, their territorial cohesion and, ultimately, the competitiveness of the sector. A relationship of collaboration and trust also confirmed by the results of the 2022 campaign, in which all the objectives set were achieved, despite the drought and the increase in production costs. The full representativeness of the IO can only benefit the efficiency of relations with the institutions, primarily regional and ministerial, whose conclusions are often decisive for the maintenance of the sector, as we have seen recently with the acceptance of our proposals for coupled aid and access to Ecoscheme 4 agro-environmental aid in the CAP 2023-27 National Plan”.

Source: OI Pomodoro Nord Italia