Roundtable: Towards a Resilient Supply Chain in the Markets (Part 2)

Transcript of the roundtable: Towards a Resilient Supply Chain, in the markets held during the 2025 Tomato News Conference @ANUGA on 5 October 2025 (part 2). You can read part 1 HERE

Click on the image above to watch the recording on Vimeo or read the transcript below.

Antonio Casana: Now, I come to the second question and I ask you to be brief, in order to have some time, also for the Q&A section. So I come to Francesco with a sensitive question regarding sustainability and unfair competition.

Many companies and brands, including yours, invest heavily in sustainability, fair practices and transparent supply chain. But on the global stage, price often remains the dominant driver. In your view what is the realistic price premium, If you can express any percentage, that consumers are willing to pay for a product that is ethically and sustainable produce, compare it to a lower cost alternative from regions where such guarantees are absent. You have been particularly vocal about the impact of low cost tomato paste imports from Xinjiang, not only due to the serious ethical concern, such as forced labor, but also dumping pricing practices and market distortion. What specific regulatory or trade policy measures do you believe European and Western countries should adopt to create a fair, competitive environment, one that supports transparency, sustainability and ethical production standards?

Francesco Mutti: Antonio, you ask questions that require a couple of days of discussion!

Antonio Casana: Sure, but try to be sure it’s not!

Francesco Mutti: I’ll try to do my best. Let’s say that consumer very often do not buy for sustainability or ethics. So the willingness of a normal consumer in Europe, I’m not talking about Italy but I’m talking about also Scandinavia, the premium message is extremely limited or close to zero is something that probably is more related to a global concept of quality. So when you want to have a quality product, this concept of qualities goes beyond something that is just the taste of the product, the origin of the product and is really a total quality that requires attention and investments, obviously on sustainability, on ethics. And as the European Union, we have to be extremely careful about that, because I think that from one side is a must, we should invest more and more in sustainability but probably the agenda is changed in the last 4 or 5 years. So before Covid, the Paris Agreement shows at that time it was taking like, low quality agreement, but it was a good step, a direction. But after that, with the war in Ukraine and Covid before the war, and inflation, so now nobody is really have this agenda in their head.

In Europe we have taken extremely seriously the subject, and it’s great because we are one of the most developed, from an economic point of view, part of the world. So, we do not want people dying because we invest more on sustainability, but we have to be extremely careful about impact from one side, the cost for the general consumer, but also even worse, is the implication related to import. Because obviously, if we put duties and duties can be ETS for instance. So the fact that our companies are paying for the trade emissions and then we accept to import from countries in which there is a totally free emission trade or without any cost for the company that creates a strong imbalance, because it means that we will import more and more for unsustainable companies, while the sustainable ones will face higher costs without really a step change in our full global sustainability.

The same thing was mentioned before for agri-pharma, the products for agriculture. As Europe, we are very keen to select “cancel”, but on the other side we should also analyze that versus the US for example, production per hectares, in the north of Italy is less than half the one in the US, and that has a strong impact because the costs would be higher and higher. And it doesn’t mean that our entire world would be more protected. And if we accept product without due these environmental duties coming from abroad, that is a completely different legislation that we are not doing really the right service to the planet.

So I think coming to the end and I stepped back to a part of the question, there is really, an element of cohesion about the project. So when you want to deliver quality, the quality is being has to be at 360 degrees, covering all the subject but knowing that probably for the consumer at the end, quality in practical sense, so what I eat, the quality of what I eat, is what really make the difference. The other is something that is absolutely required, but versus which the consumer is not willing to pay more.

Antonio Casana: Thank you Francesco. Thank you. So coming to Manuel, we heard that you have also, farming division. So I would like to know about your vision of about the impact of the yields in southern Europe and how the group is adapting is sourcing and production strategy to ensure long term viability of raw material supply.

Manuel Vasquez : Okay. So in farming, the area we are focused mainly on is regenerative farming practice or how to improve the soil health using covered crops. So we are trying to substitute chemical fertilizers by organic fertilizers, how to improve biodiversity and how to reduce the inputs, herbicides, fungicides, and so on. Also, we are very focused on the technology adoption, satellite images to improve irrigation, to control crops, fully automatic transplanting that are reducing the diesel consumption, fully automatic irrigation with a project with a Japanese company for making a very targeted irrigation based on the satellite image, trying to reduce the use of water. We are working with pest and weather alert system. We are using drones for the use of a fungicide that are reducing also the emissions in the fields. And we are able to apply products when it’s not possible, when it’s raining. Use of solar panels for irrigation systems. We’re testing robots for weeds removal. So we’re trying to adopt technology in order to be more, more competitive in the farming area. , varieties we have during the session, we have been talking about the varieties. Varieties are really, really important for the for the sector or know. So we are continuously testing what is available in the market.

We all know that main seed companies are focused in America. So from here we ask those companies to focus on Europe, it is important. Not as important as America in terms of the market, but we need we need your help to find the right new varieties, mainly for the heat resistance, because the heat is impacting Europe and but also we are looking in varieties a specific traits like the color, viscosity and so on.

And it’s really important to combine the necessities of both farmers and industry. And this is really, really important and we are focused there.

We are also focused on the geographic diversification. We have to identify and successfully develop new growing areas that were not traditionally used for tomatoes, often in response to water scarcity.

So Conesa resilience is strategy. It’s about working hand-in-hand with farmers, transferring all the knowledge that we acquired but also learning from them.

Antonio Casana: Thank you Manuel. Coming to Monica, your company that announced a split, a corporate split recently, even after this it that will remain a global, self-stable supplier with more than 15 billion annual turnover. So how do you balance the need for localized and sustainable farming and efficiency in your global supply chain? And, are there any specific sourcing region where this balance is particularly difficult? Or, where do you think innovative solution that will emerge?

Monica Souza: Oh, I think to your point. We recently announced this split. I think that as a new strategic decision, we strongly believe that is the right decision that is going to allow the two companies to focus in the right things and improve operations and improve the results. But when it comes to my part of the world, that is Europe, I think that the scope remains and change and we will continue to operate as one company, at least until the end of the year when we expect the transaction to be finished.

When it comes to the to the balance. I think that obviously, as a global company, with the scale that we have, it is always challenging to ensure that we have consistent consistency in the quality of our products. And in our case, we have a balance how we source, especially our tomatoes ingredients. Because we obviously have this very localized and in some cases we obviously buy the processed tomato and in other cases, we have the relationships directly with the growers, depending on the different regions of the world.

I would say that our biggest bet and the way that we look at this, again, it always starts with the seeds. And I think that not everyone is aware of this, but I hope that many of the people in this room know, we actually have been breeding and developing our own seeds since 1934. So, the Heinz seeds, they’re very well recognized for having better resistance to different weather conditions and to improve the yields while reducing also the necessity of utilizing fertilizers and other things. So I think that our strategy when it comes to this consistency and to adapting to the different climate conditions and the challenges that we have across the globe, is to have the right seed for the right soil and climate conditions in every region.

And this is something that we have, our R&D center and our center of agronomists that is based in California, actually in the US. But they travels the world to do this development in partnership with the growers. And as I mentioned before, this is a development that happens in forehands, because we do this in partnership with them. Every new seed that we develop takes in average five years between prototyping and scaling and selling it commercially. And it’s crucial for us to learn from the growers in the field and to have their feedback to be able to improve our job. So I think that the first step in terms of this consistency is the seeds and is the balance between the scale and the localization that we utilize. We leverage those resources that we have in California, but we are able to adapt to the different weather conditions that we have in every part of the globe in which we have, operations. both in Africa, in South America, in North America and here in Europe, as well as specific in Asia. So we are very aware of this.

And the second element for me is obviously, partnering with the tomato processors, because we do have a specific process that utilize for our products. And to ensure that we are leveraging this technology and we are leveraging the specifications that we have in place in the process to ensure the consistency at the end of the day. I wouldn’t say that there isn’t a particular region in the world that we are facing challenges. We heard, in the opening of the session, earlier today about how we have different yields across the globe. And we are pretty much operating in all the locations that we have seen, with the exception of a few. For me is really about how we start from the seed to the processing and obviously learning how we do the processing in our own factories. To do this in an harmonious way and to be able to partner in to adapt to the specific conditions that we have in each one of the places that we are.

Antonio Casana: Thank you Monica. Similar question for Kitty. Kagome is well known for high quality product delivery to the consumer, but also for your goals on sustainability and environmental protection. But are consumers truly willing to pay more for sustainable product? And how do you approach sourcing in region where environmental and social out is less developed? Do you foresee a reshoring trends bringing production closer to consumer markets with stronger sustainability standard? What is your point of view?

Kitty Katijima: We believe that society distribution channel, of course consumer pay more attention on those issues like sustainability and in the future, probably companies that can respond to that kind of issues, will be the one who are chosen. But when it comes to the customer willingness to pay extra, like, Francesco-san mentioned, probably it remains a challenge for us still. And we believe that the first trigger for the choice of customer or consumer will be probably the product value itself, like such as taste. So in the same price range, however, a customer will actively choose like, you know, a sustainable product. So we try to explore way to achieve high output. Even though we import a little lower compared to now and then probably the procurement cost for raw material procurement should not change significantly. And then as a result, we do not foresee the need of substantial price freeze for our product.

Antonio Casana: Thank you Kitty-san. And I would like to ask DeMartino about his experience in packaging and innovation. So I go to, to the question about sustainability and packaging. Can I ask you if you can, tell us about your view, what do you think, about sustainability versus consumer convenience. If you can share an example of cultural or consumer insights from Japan or Northern Europe and countries that fostered to rethink packaging on the shelves, packaging to a new style. What do you think about this and what are, in your view, the expectations in mature markets for consumer trends about packaging?

Wolfgang DeMartino: Starting from the last question. That’s it’s too complicated to reply because things have changed so much on packaging materials that I can just see that packaging material producers are really reluctant to changes because changes mean money and time. And it’s complicated once that you have invested in facilities producing a specific packaging material. So changing that so fast is not, let’s say, the most convenient thing and, the most efficient thing for.

So it’s complicated to say I can, I can just be focused on the first part of your question, Antonio.What I’ve seen is that, Demartino has been focused on the new topics applied to the products and the new topics could have been, the packaging material on one side and the, products itself on the other side. And I completely agree with Francesco, seeing that the product is a global service. It’s not only the taste and the quality inside any kind of packaging. I completely agree with it.

What we have done was to study the market I’m talking about 25 years ago then, and see how we could place ourselves in the market without so much of a competition in the market and in that case, 24, 25 years ago, paper pack was the reply to that in that perspective, back because Casalsco was, is, let’s say, predominant foreseeing company, in Italy at least, but I think in the world as well for paper packaging investments. And we have followed that, we have followed that pattern. And the markets, let’s see, agreed on that, agreed on that, not the whole market, because in that case, there were only a few markets accepting the concept, a few buyers accepting the concept of the new packaging material paper pack apply to them to let’s say, historically canned products which could have been tomatoes or legumes or beans, and even step by step from glass jar seem to be perfect for sauces, pasta sauces, tomato sauces. So we have, I have personally, invested in that. And the technology there has improved quite a lot. The other thing about packaging materials which is interesting to my personal experience, is that the packaging material has been influenced also by politics, but not only from the recyclability point of view and all the costs related to recyclability, actually from some laws which local governments have applied to single markets, in Japan, in Scandinavia as well. For example, in some areas you pay more money to distributors, pay more money if the gross weight is very different to the net weight, for example, and the additional costs, additional tax, let’s see. On the other hand, if you are, if you’re delivering a packaging material which is multi-layer and that multilayer cannot be recycled or separated, then you pay an additional tax on that. And this has driven many packers decision companies decisions and also biased decisions which have influenced the market, which are actually influencing the market. AndI am trying to study that as well. So I am very much in the packaging material side, and the supply chain has been disrupted by that as well. Because it’s been so, the packaging material has been affected a lot by the geopolitical situation and everything. But these are caused, in the first step, just by the lack of material and therefore by the lack of choice for the new ideas. And then it has brought to building socks. And so the next step will be delayed. Now I hope that things will continue changing faster. But again, there is a balance between cost and new investments because markets. So customers are leaders and they cannot pay problems and they cannot pay higher prices.

Antonio Casana: Thank you. So, we are close to the end because time flies. And so, I ask if someone has any questions for our panelists. Otherwise, I will give the opportunity for each of them to, if they want to, give a final, final remark about their vision for the next ten years. What do they think looking ahead 20, 35years, what do you what do you imagine from your perspective? This this industry from your perspective?

Francesco Mutti: Not I mean, just to finish the previous question that is related to when I mentioned about China. So the risk of having introduction, that the “made in Italy” as something that is significant, it doesn’t mean that just the storytelling. We mentioned before if the product do not have a different standing, well, you don’t go far for a long time. And for this reason, I think as Europeans, we should protect consumers from knowing, at least from where the product is coming. And if we see a the future of this sector, first is extremely difficult to project something. I think that 2020 shows us how difficult and the challenges that are extremely strong. So since the 20 where the Covid that having an explosion for some sectors like the retail and the decline for the food sector, then we have a terrible inflation in 2022, then in particular for the north of Italy, we have a dramatic season like 2024. And, so projecting something is extremely hard. Probably the big question will be what will be the perception of cooking, in particular at home, for the consumer. So if it will be more a need related to the speed of having a quick lunch and the cost of having a quick lunch, or vice-versa it would be a moment of pleasure, a moment of relax, in which I will try to obtain the best from my capability from the product, I will choose for sharing with friends or with others, or by yourself, but is really the big question that I think that more and more there will be more layers on our society going different directions. So what is happening to me more and more is not single trends, but will be specific trends, and specific areas. So someone will go on price-price-price, someone for a certain quality, someone who is looking for the best quality, having obviously the possibility, but the investment at the ends when we are talking about the food investments on food is declining year by year. So is not really a matter of money, it is a matter of choice. And the simultaneous moving of all these element will give our future, which is not an answer!

Antonio Casana: Thank you. Thank you Francesco. Is someone one answer to this ?

Manuel Vasquez: Remarks like just to to point out, something related to the European industry.

Antonio Casana: Yes, please. You are also the president of TomatoEurope.

Manuel Vasquez: The European industry cannot compete in terms of cost with big players like China or the USA, but also with places like Turkey, Egypt or even Chile. There are those countries where regulatory conditions are totally different. Labor costs in some cases are cheaper. Scales is a huge. In some cases, like you say, they have certain low cost inputs.

No, I think the real play of European industries is to compete on quality, on reliability, on service, traceability, sustainability, and diversified portfolio of products. Now I think that the talking about food safety. European standards are the strictest in the world. So it produces with far fewer pesticides, fungicides or herbicide than any place in the world. In terms of sustainability, due to the environmental regulations, I’m quite sure that the farming and the industries are the less polluting in the world and in terms of CO2 emissions because we are paying for our emissions. In terms of CO2 emissions or water use because we have our regulation which is very restrictive in the quality of what we can put into the river. So for sure we are, we have been, very sustainable.

Talking about social responsibility, compliance with labor, the rights and workplace safety makes among the most socially responsible of all. And talking about innovation, quality standards. Well, in Europe there’s a huge diversified range of product that is not happening in other parts of the world, so I think we, we need to take advantage of these. And of course, we are, based on the market presentation, you know, producers are selling practically 80% of the products in Europe. So we are very close to our market. So we need to take advantage of the shorter logistics chains, the lower transport emission, the faster service. So I think this would be the other…

Antonio Casana: Challenge?

Manuel Vasquez: No, not the challenge, the good things that Europe are doing and we need to put into value, and, well, that’s what I want to say. And I don’t want to spend more time talking about regulation because …

Antonio Casana: We have no time. It’s too late and we are closing in this section… Monica, if you want to say a few words.

Monica Souza: I do not want to repeat everything that everyone has already said. I just think that the conclusion for me is that consumers are going to continue to look for, you know, like quality, for solutions that they can, you know, like indulge, and that makes them feel good as I mentioned in the beginning. But there are some who are looking for sustainably and socially responsible source. Which is going to be a challenge for all of us with the caveat that is also has to be affordable.

So I think that for me the key trend, is how to tap into strong partnerships because I think that the realization of companies be them big companies or small companies, that we are not going to be able to tackle this alone. So for me, this is the most important and pressing matter for us. And it’s a big part of my agenda is to make sure that we have this solid foundation in terms of partnerships so we can be ready for the future.

Antonio Casana: Thank you. Any comments Kitty-san?

Monica Souza: Looking ahead to the future, Kagome have established a vision for 2035 which contains low environmental impact tomato business. So and we believe that Europeans are going much, much farther compared to Japanese. So I would like to learn a lot from European company like you guys. And, I actually have this is one of the fields for Conesa and one of the fields for Solana doing our regenerative agriculture trials. So I’d like to have more opportunity to learn more from you and European companies to have much better situation in Japan as well. Thank you very much.

Antonio Casana: Thank you.

Wolfgang DeMartino: I will be very fast. Basically, I’m still focused on Giorgio Armani phrase which I’ve seen in the airport. So we have commitment. We should have commitment, respect and attention to people, customers and to reality. Which means environment and climate change and food waste. And this is something that we need to have clear in our minds. I think at least I’m trying to, I’m learning a lot, since I made the operation with Casalasco, because I learned a lot out of the social accountability. And, I’m still learning a lot. And, I think that must be one of our polar stars. And then, giving the best balance to consumers for quality price, given the quality, the right price. And then we always do our best and we should do that.

Antonio Casana: Thank you.

So I thank you all for attending this. And, I ask Martin to come to the stage to make us some final remarks and to introduce the Monterey film for the next Congress. It’s very late now…

Martin Stilwell: First, thank you to all the speakers. And then the second thing, which I think I have to point out, we produce a fabulous product. With all the discussion of problems and difficulties, it’s easy to forget that we have a product which is appreciated by the world. And one way or another, we will survive. I’m a good example of that. I started working in this business, when I was 20 years old. I’m now 76, so, thank you. And good night to you all.