High-quality, the excellence of producer companies, product traceability, safe transactions, the protection of Italian products, direct dialogue between producers and the big retail chains, services for members - this is the best that can be offered to consumers looking for high-quality products.
Terra Mia Italia is a business network that aims at safeguarding Italian agricultural and food products. The new project focuses on the blockchain, on waging war on Italian-sounding products and on DNA markers in order to have top-quality produce on the shelves. The project is based on a contract that gathers approximately 150 products and 400 companies on the Italian territory, POs and national cooperatives under a network contract. FreshPlaza talked about it with Marco Bellucci, president of Terra Mia Italia and a consultant working both in Italy and abroad to promote Italian products.
Marco Bellucci
FP - What will be the first products to become available on the market?
MB - We started with the citrus fruit campaign, with a wide range from Sicily and Calabria, followed by the whole range. We have ancient varieties of forgotten fruits, cucurbits, stone fruit, strawberries, lettuce, vegetables, potatoes from Sila and organic products. These premium products are the result of a meticulous selection work and are destined to the big retail chain and to a public that understands our philosophy.
FP - What are the objectives of Terra Mia Italia?
MB - To obtain higher margins for producers and an added value for the big retail chain. This will be possible because, for the first time, producers will have a direct relationship with the big retail chain, bypassing intermediate figures to make their work more profitable.
FP - Everything moves through a Blockchain. How?
MB - It is a decentralized digital ledger that has many advantages. The first is the creation of an eco-system, as it provides a view of each single commercial transaction to all actors involved. The second is the safety of information, as all network transactions are registered. The third is product traceability, which enables the tracing of the entire production chain. Product QR Codes are generated within batches that enable clients and final consumers to get to know their real story. This goes hand in hand with the use of DNA markers. The fourth is the help of Internet of Things (IoT), i.e. state-of-the-art technologies that include temperature sensors for the transport of frozen products in refrigerated units. Terra Mia Italia owns a platform developed specifically by Food Chain Spa and made available to its associates for product traceability purposes.
FP - Are made in Italy and made by Italy products also safeguarded?
MB - Of course. I have been fighting for this since 2004: I remember when I used to work in the US and I found myself in front of a series of products made in Mexico and marketed as Italian. The taste was terrible and they were obviously counterfeited. That is when I started defending our companies and our products. Counterfeiting and Italian-sounding phenomena are increasingly present. In the food and beverage sector alone, the turnover is €90 billion a year, i.e. almost three times our exports. There have been many attempts to defend our productions, but we still have Parmesan made in Wisconsin or Asiago and Gorgonzola made in USA. The Italian sounding phenomenon is of great relevance all over the world: in the US and Canada, 97% of sauces are imitations, as well as 94% of preserves and 76% of tinned tomatoes.
FP - What platforms does Terra Mia Italia operate on?
MB - They are distributed all over the peninsula, from Lombardy (San Giuliano Milanese) to Sicily - Pachino and Vittoria - and Sardinia. Then we have Locri, Corigliano, San Ferdinando, Rosarno and Sila in Calabria, Metaponto in Puglia, Bari and Barletta in Apulia, the Agropontino area in Lazio and Perugia in Umbria.
FP - What are the internationalization services made available to members?
MB - The Internationalization Desk at Confindustria Reggio Calabria has the objective of helping companies achieve or strengthen their presence on the foreign market through a wide range of services and activities that include export check-ups, the opening of virtual desks in the Chambers of Commerce abroad, support to obtain financing and technical assistance for exchanges with the foreign markets.
For further information:
Terra Mia Italia
Marco Bellucci
+39 331 7561189
+39 011 0681810
info@terramiaitalia.org
Divisione Blockchain
Walter Fiorito
+39 344 2504196