Piana del Sele, 20 million from the banks for sustainable supply chains

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From three local banks, a ceiling of 20 million euros to finance sustainability projects by companies in the Piana del Sele active in the fresh-cut sector, i.e. fresh, cut, washed and packaged fruit and vegetables. A market which, with over a billion euros in value, represents approximately 18% of the Italian fruit and vegetable industry and 2% of the overall food market and the Piana del Sele, with an area of ​​approximately 6 thousand hectares dedicated to production, is one of the main European centers for the production of packaged vegetables, together with other territories of Campania and Lombardy.

The Sustainable Supply Chains project

The project was born two years ago from the collaboration between the Symbola Foundation, BCC Campania Centro, BCC Capaccio Paestum and Serino, Bcc Magna Grecia, in partnership with Coldiretti Campania and Confagricoltura Salerno, with the aim of identifying some supply chains in the Piana del Sele area of excellence to accelerate its sustainable development. The first two supply chains identified were precisely the fresh-cut supply chain and the buffalo buffalo one, but the aim of the promoters is to continue with other supply chains in the area, but it might become a model to be exported to other regions too.

In these two years Symbola, in close collaboration with the manufacturing companies, has carried out a study aimed at mapping innovative solutions for the sector, exploring five environmental dimensions: chemical replacement or reduction, water management, soil and biodiversity management, reduction of emissions of CO2 and energy consumption, reuse of by-products and packaging. And, for each dimension, it highlighted 30 technological solutions that companies should implement or consolidate to ensure more sustainable and therefore competitive production.

Piana del Sele, agricultural center of excellence

«The study analyzed the peculiarities of the Piana del Sele, an area historically suited to high-quality agricultural production and which has now established itself as one of the main fresh-cut production centers in Europe and in the world», explains Domenico Sturabotti, director of the Foundation Symbola, who together with Marco Frey coordinated the Piana del Sele sustainable supply chains project. A quality that is still little known to end consumers, given that the companies in the supply chain operate predominantly in the B2B sector: for this reason the project envisages, in addition to the implementation of the study, also its dissemination.

There is also an issue of attractiveness of the supply chain: the customers of these companies are in fact large national or international players, who might be tempted to ride the price lever, as these are products with overall low added value. «Making known the quality and excellence of the productions of the Piana del Sele can become a competitiveness tool, to guide market choices on this territory», observes Sturabotti.