"We will start in early May with the harvesting of curly and plain endive. This year, the weather has been good - temperatures weren't too cold in March-April except for last week, though luckily they only slowed the cycle down rather than damaging it, so there is no problem from a quality and yield point of view," explained Stefano Pazzagli (in the photo), technical manager for Sipo and Flavour Valley.Established by the Ceccarini (founders of Sipo) and the Bagnara (founders of Dismano) families, Flavour Valley grows and distributes high-quality vegetables from the Romagna area thanks to the deep knowledge of the sector they developed over the years.
The company sows, transplants, grows (integrated-control) and harvests vegetables for the packed unwashed and fresh-cut range on over 40 hectares of land. It then processes and markets the produce daily thanks to controlled temperature systems. In 2015/16, it will invest €1.8 million on equipment, fertilization and irrigation plants and biodiversity.
The productions scheduled for the spring-summer season are:
- 2 hectares of white cabbage - harvesting in May and production until December
- 1 hectare of red cabbage - harvesting in July/December
- 5 hectares of sugarloaf chicory - harvesting in June (1 ha) and October/January (4 ha)
- 2 hectares of dark courgettes - harvesting in June/July
- 9 hectares of endive (curly and plain) - harvesting between May and November
- 8 hectares celery (white and green) - harvesting between June and October.
But Flavour Valley will also give room to more innovative crops such as Giant Romagna cardoon (harvested between October and February), red and green curly cabbage (harvested between October and February) and kale (harvested between October and January).
"Flavour Valley's plan aims at promoting the produce from Romagna, which will be mainly destined, packed and unwashed, to domestic retailers. Some of the products will have dedicated packaging," explained Franco Ceccarini (in the photo), founder of Sipo.Flavour Valley's president Maria Teresa Mengarelli concluded by saying that the company "pays the utmost attention to the production chain and biodiversity thanks to the experience of Sipo, which has been a leading company in the sector for over 50 years."
Contacts:
Stefania Santarsiero
Marketing Department Sipo
Tel.: (+39) 0541 339711
Email: stefania@sipo.it
Author: Raffaella Quadretti
Copyright: www.freshplaza.it