“The hazelnut supply chain has its roots in Calabria over time, and which we want to maintain with consistently high quality standards. Ferrero can be our quality certification with respect to the characteristics of our product, and I hope that today's occasion is the beginning of an even more solid agreement for the future. Here such an important entrepreneurial reality would find an institutional context that is extremely sensitive to development ideas. We are engaged in investment attraction strategies also because this is a region which from a logistical point of view, thanks to the presence of the port of Gioia Tauro, but also other potential development drivers, aims to be an extraordinary opportunity for all companies that intend to invest in Calabria”.
The president of the Calabria Region said it, Roberto Occhiutoduring the presentation of the collaboration agreement between Ferrero and Arsac which provides for the implementation of a series of activities and initiatives aimed at promotion of the qualitative and quantitative development of the national hazelnut production chain and in particular the Calabrian one. An agreement that was created with the aim of obtaining the production of a quality hazelnut, also through the use of new technologies, cooperation in production processes, but above all providing for a series of actions aimed at environmental sustainability.
“As a Region – stated the agriculture councilor Gianluca Gallo – we issued a tender with a ranking that financed 120 hectares of hazelnut groves, but also many other hectares of nuts. Now, we have a second tender underway also to support this agreement between Arsac and Ferrero and to ensure that there is a high quality hazelnut supply chain in Calabria. Important scenarios are opening up, ours is a region in which there will be a SEZ and therefore will be able to have the right attention from other multinationals. We have high quality companies and entrepreneurs who know how to describe themselves and their products in a better way than in the past. Our agriculture must change paradigm, today we must be competitive through technology and a scientific approach”.
“Quality, sustainability and innovation – stated the councilor for economic development, Rosario Vari – are elements that the regional government is putting at the center of its action in every sector. Quality and excellence is what Calabria must focus on in the agri-food sector as well as in many other sectors. There is a variety of aid that we are making available for those who want to come to Calabria to invest and today's event is a way to highlight the opportunities that this area offers. In Calabria you can do business because the regional government is close to entrepreneurs.”
According to the extraordinary commissioner of Arsac, Fulvia Michela Caligiuri, who also illustrated the terms of the agreement with Ferrero, “today's initiative is the result of a journey started a few years ago which has finally materialized in an official manner”. “Arsac – he added – wants to be, for this as for other supply chains, the operational arm of the Calabria Region. Together with Ferrero, which is a very valid partner, we will experiment with concrete possibilities for investment and success. Dissemination and training will be very important. Calabrian agricultural entrepreneurship has made giant strides and has nothing to envy of others, it wants to and can demonstrate it.”
“Calabria – he finally underlined Federico Laudazi, Head of Agribusiness Deployment Italy Ferrero HCo division of the group dedicated to the development and integrated management of the hazelnut supply chain – it is a region that is gradually establishing itself within the hazelnut sector due to the characteristics of the territory, its traditions and its specificities and the sensitivity demonstrated by the main local actors. Since 2018, Ferrero has implemented a whole series of activities to protect the tradition of the national hazelnut sector. The main one is the Nocciola Italia project which aims to support the development of an integrated supply chain where on the one hand large industry and on the other local producers can collaborate with a long-term approach, maximizing the adoption of those that it is the good practices that protect the quality and sustainability of the final production.
We pursue this dual objective through two levers: by working on the sharing of skills within the supply chain and by encouraging new hazelnut groves, generally outside the historical production areas on marginal lands, facilitating economic alternatives to the territories”.
