Antonio Fricano is the president of Consorzio BIA. He said, “Our consortium was born 7 years ago, and counts 11 organic fresh fruit and vegetable producers. The idea of bringing together different businesses was pushed by the MMR that asked for a shorter supply chain through the association of the national agricultural production. As of today, our company relies on some of the most important Italian organic producers, each of which stands at the top of their respective segments”.
Antonio Fricano, president of Consorzio BIA
Five of the companies taking part in this project have representative men in the consortium’s administrative board which gathers twice per year. During these meetings, the partners decide together the strategic actions to undertake.
The citrus fruit campaign has kicked off in the last weeks. Excellent results in the international markets, especially in North Europe.
The idea of gathering organic companies has always been aimed at optimising international marketing, which, as everyone knows, is highly interested in organic produce. It is necessary to have better coordination and a careful supply chain management in order to meet the Central and Northern Europe customers’ expectations. The Consorzio BIA is exactly committed to that. On the other hand, the international MMR wants to make processes shorter and thus it prefers to communicate with a single subject that can guarantee a univocal standard.
The president continued, “The Administrative Board is the place where the most important decisions for the well-being of the consortium are made, starting from the marketing politics, the planning, to communication and commercial projects. In this way, our producing partners can directly influence the decisions they are involved in”.
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The 11 farming companies are mainly located in South Italy. Each of them is provided with a processing and packaging plant situated close to the fields. The harvested produce is directly processed by the farmer. The warehouses based in North Italy are exclusively for logistics reasons. The Consorzio is able to keep the highest levels of freshness and quality thanks to this organisation. A short supply chain allows decreasing the price while at the same time it ensures a good revenue to the producers.
Bia measures and guarantees high-quality thanks to the more than 4.000 analyses it carries out, not only on the finished product but also and especially on the field, on the root apparatus and the leaves. The cost of this is around 500.000 euros, yearly. The Consorzio has the GlobalGAP and IFS certifications, and its associated companies have the GRASP certificate.
The partner farming companies are: Cooperativa Agroviva, OP Aposicilia, BioHeaven (all three of them based in Sicily), Carpe Naturam PO (Corigliano Calabro), Azienda Agrumicola Irma Sorgente and La Maggiolina PO (Capaccio, Paestum), Prima Bio PO and Naturbio (Puglia), S’Atra Sardignia (Sardinia), Biofarm (Veneto) and BioMeranin (Alto Adige).
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All these companies together occupy 1.677 hectares farmed with organic fruit and 1.360 hectares farmed with organic fruit and vegetable. In 2017, the Consorzio produced 83 million euros worth of fresh organic fruit and vegetable only. Over the last three years, the revenue increased by 15% thanks to the producers who have perfectly cooperated through the excellent structuring of the consortium.
Therefore, this is one of the most important organic producers both in Italy and Europe. Almost 90% of the production is marketed in Europe (Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Scandinavian and Eastern Europe countries), while the remainder is distributed in Italy.
The Consorzio BIA will participate in Fruit Logistica in Berlin for the first time (6-7-8 February 2019). On that occasion, the president, Antonio Fricano, the manager, Gianluca Schiassi, and other consortium producers will meet the sector stakeholders.
Info:
Bia Soc. Agricola Consortile s. r.l.
Tel.: +39 335 6501764 (Dir. Gianluca Schiassi)
Email: commerciale@biaarl.it
Web: www.consorziobia.eu
OP Consorzio APO Sicilia Soc. Coop.
Via Cordova 11/13
90012 Bagheria (PA)
Tel.1: +39 091 902000
Tel.2: + 39 3385760753 (Paolo Rizzo)
Email:info@aposicilia.com