"Considering the multiple economic crises that have occurred over the past few years, some European retail chains and other operators are pushing on imports from extra-EU countries," reports Vittorio Gona from Alba Bio OP. "These dynamics are increasingly attracting countries such as Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco. All this is possible thanks to an increasing demand from the markets. Yet Italian and European producers do not follow this growing trend, maybe because they are cautious or due to the excessive increase in sowing and management costs as well as to the pressure on plant protection."
Vittorio Gona
"In this general context, we managed to increase our production volume in the 2022/23 campaign as well, thanks to the dedication of all our members who tenaciously face various difficulties every year to continue to pursue a planned growth. It is a careful and scrupulous planning job, which we take care of at the start of every season with commitment and which rewarded us this year too."
The philosophy of the founding partners (Guglielmo Parisi, Gianni Lo Magno, Vittorio Gona) has always been that of working as a team. The original team has grown over the past few years thanks to other entrepreneurs who believe in the same mantra as the one Gona likes to repeat: "alone you can go fast, but you can go far as a team."
"It precisely because of our will to work together that, in October 2022, we decided to integrate the production of energy of renewable sources alongside the production of vegetables. We therefore invested on agrovoltaic energy with a project that involves 15 entrepreneurs, 25 hectares, a production of 11MW and 20 self-consumption projects. The idea is now to set up a renewable energy consortium involving small producers to increase the profitability and negotiation strength to the planning, production and sale of the electricity produced by our systems. At the same time, we are developing executive projects as we already possess connection authorizations. The energy transition will have to be carried out mainly through the electrification of all sectors, where possible. Estimates so far tell us that, from now until 2030, Italy will have to install approximately 70 GW of renewable systems to reach the European objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared with 1990 (European Green Deal Fit for 55 package). We must get a move on! Agricultural areas will also have to be used as installation sites, hence the term agrovoltaic. In this case too, we estimated how much agricultural land should have to destined to the installation of agrovoltaic systems: at least 2% of the Italian agricultural land used."
As for quotations, "prices recently increased by around 15% compared with the last season. Cherry tomatoes sell at €1.70/kg, plum tomatoes at €2.40/kg, zucchini at €1.30/kg, cucumbers at €1.20/kg, eggplants at €1.40/kg, bunch tomatoes at €1.40/kg. Nonetheless, these increases are not in line with the increases in production costs, which are 30% higher. We are hoping for packaging costs to decrease. Inflation, however, continues to contribute to creating problems for companies and politics in general is not showing sufficient determination in interpreting the needs of the Italian fresh produce sector."
For further information:
Vittorio Gona
O.P. Coop. Alba Bio
Cda Ferranta, SN
97010 Marina di Ragusa (RG) - Italy
+39 0932 239003
info@gruppoalbabio.it
www.gruppoalbabio.it