A few weeks ago an attack seriously damaged the structures of an important Reggio agri-food company, Delizie della Natura. A medium-sized business reality that has been present in the area for several years, employing over 40 people. One of those realities with the typical characteristics of an excellent company.
This is yet another attack against productive activities in Reggio, which throws in our faces, unequivocally, the reality of the facts which unfortunately persists in the Reggio area: the ‘Ndrangheta is still actively present in the area, and maintains a strong ability to intimidate businesses.
Whether these are signs of a strengthening of crime in its action to control the territory, or perhaps “symptoms”, “reactions” to a growing weakness, we do not know. The investigators’ investigations will verify the nature and reasons for the act.
In recent decades, a great deal of work has been done by the judiciary and the police to combat the phenomenon. As the entrepreneurs told us during the study we carried out a few years ago on the companies registered in the Reggiolibereggio network – freedom has no protection money, thanks to the action of the State today the pressure of the ‘Ndrangheta on economic activities is much less strong and pervasive than 20 or 30 years ago.
However, the repetition of these events reiterates that the phenomenon is still far from being eradicated.
Reggio’s businesses pay for many of the structural critical issues of the territory: accessibility, i.e. geographical and infrastructural isolation, first and foremost, which makes it expensive to reach the markets and procure production factors (although something is moving). A Public Administration which, at various levels, does not always respond to the needs of businesses in an efficient and reactive way.
Difficulties in finding adequately trained staff. The deficiencies in basic collective and private services. These are all aspects that penalize Reggio’s businesses by negatively impacting their operations, i.e. they aggravate their costs and reduce their competitive capacity. Because of them, business activity in Reggio inevitably becomes more difficult and expensive compared to other areas, which are better infrastructured and equipped.
However, these disadvantages do not inhibit or preclude the pursuit of business activity. Nor do they limit the possibility of growth. Of course, they make doing business more difficult, more expensive, but not impossible. It is no coincidence that, despite everything, in the Reggio Emilia area in recent decades several successful entrepreneurial realities have arisen and consolidated, in different sectors of manufacturing and services, both traditional and hi-tech.
The action of organized crime, on the contrary, inhibits and prevents from origin the possibility of starting and growing a business. Entrepreneurs tend not to invest to start or expand a business in territories where security is not guaranteed, which is a precondition for the development of a production system.
The scientific literature on the harmful effects of organized crime on entrepreneurship is very extensive. The same study that we conducted a few years ago on the companies registered in the Reggioliberareggio network – freedom has no protection money highlighted a fact: Reggio companies are often afraid of growing beyond a certain threshold of employees and turnover, because they could “step on the toes” of certain competitors, or they could increase the attractiveness of their business to “ill-intentioned people”, or they could in any case acquire excessive visibility.
Until this “anomaly” that looms over the economy and society of Reggio is resolved, bringing Reggio to those conditions of security enjoyed by the citizens and businesses of many other areas of the country, any possibility of development of the Reggio production system will be fundamentally called into question. Entrepreneurs must be able to operate taking only and exclusively normal business risk.
The work done in recent years by the associations, by the networks, by the so-called “intermediate bodies” in support of Reggio’s businesses, I am thinking in particular of the initiatives not only of the Reggioliberareggio network – freedom has no protection money but also of the Fai Antiracket Federation together with the Prefecture and Ance, has been commendable and important. Thanks to experiences of this kind, entrepreneurs are less isolated and more protected.
The loneliness of entrepreneurs in the face of the constraints of the ‘Ndrangheta is in fact the situation that notoriously makes them more exposed, or rather weaker, in the face of pressure from criminal organisations.
The less entrepreneurs feel and are alone thanks to the support of these entities, the less effective the conditioning action of organized crime is. However, it is clear that the mobilization of associations, networks and various intermediate bodies is not enough.
We need to make the regulatory framework regarding economic support for companies that suffer pressure from criminal organizations more incisive, I am thinking in particular of the reward for those who report along the lines of the initiatives recently taken at regional level, but we also need to further strengthen the repressive actions useful to combat the phenomenon.
Consider that today Reggio, for many reasons, is probably in a crucial phase of its recent history, in which it can reverse its apparent destiny of decline and depopulation. The impetus given to the city by the dizzying growth of the airport, the various infrastructure investments that have been made and will be made in the coming years to better connect Reggio to its hinterland and to the rest of the country, as well as the opportunity given by the Pnrr and Zes funds, and also the incipient relaunch of the University and educational institutions, are all factors that envisage growth scenarios for Reggio for the coming years.
However, if these opportunities land in a city burdened by the heavy handicap of the influences of organized crime, it is clear that the spontaneous and healthy processes of development of the economy and society of Reggio that we hope for will hardly be activated.
*Regional economist University of Valle d’Aosta and GREEN-Bocconi University