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Confagricoltura and Unionfood: a project on processing tomatoes underway

24/02/2025

François-Xavier Branthôme
Italy,
WPTC
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Ensuring accessible, healthy and sustainable food in the face of the growing needs of the world population and finding solutions to address climate change are the main challenges that agriculture and the food industry must address to ensure food security and the sustainability of supply chains on a global scale.

According to Professor Riccardo Valentini, researcher in ecology and the role of agroforestry systems in climate change at the University of Tuscia, “The food supply chain must be completely reinvented to allow disadvantaged urban populations access to food and mitigate the impact of extreme weather events on the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. Italy has a decisive role to play in this era of great scientific and technological innovations that are also preparing a new future for the agri-food sector.”

 
It is with this in mind that Confagricoltura and Unione Italiana Food have decided to form an alliance to provide concrete solutions to help the agri-food sectors meet these challenges. Building on the success of the historic Memorandum of Understanding for the wheat-pasta sector, Confagricoltura and Unione Italiana Food are launching a new project dedicated to the industrial tomato sector, created in collaboration with Value Groovers, a spin-off of the University of Tuscia (see also related articles below). The project aims to bring together the supply of the agricultural world with the demand of the industry, while creating added value and greater efficiency for the entire production chain.

This initiative is all the more relevant since Italy, the world's third largest producer of industrial tomatoes with over 5 million tonnes, has cultivated over 75,000 hectares in 2024, 55% in northern Italy and 45% in central-southern Italy. However, while the surface area were increasing (+10.80%), the sector is seeing a substantial reduction in yields, estimated at -12% between 2023 and 2024.

Starting from the summer of 2024, the working team coordinated by Prof. Emanuele Blasi, Professor of Agricultural and Agri-Food Economics and Policy at the Department of Innovation in Biological, Agri-Food and Forestry Systems – University of Tuscia, has begun a phase of dialogue with the agricultural and industrial sectors, in order to identify needs and prioritize functional interventions.

The elements resulting from the analysis have allowed the launch of new methods for managing contractual and commercial relationships, using new technologies, new business models and organizational innovations. During the 2025 campaign, a rich range of practices will be tested by agricultural companies and first and second processing industries in order to provide useful indications for ensuring sustainable supplies of quality products.

The initiative was presented on 22 January 2025 in Rome, in the presence of Massimiliano Giansanti, President of Confagricoltura and UniEat, Paolo Barilla, President of Unione Italiana Food and Vice-President of UniEat, and Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests.

Source: corriereortofrutticolo.it