The World Processing Tomato Congress

“This appointment, which is included in the preparatory path for the Universal Exposition of Milan 2015, is important to begin a discussion on a fundamental sector for our Country”. It's in the words of the Ministry for Agricultural Policies, Maurizio Martina, who spoke during the opening ceremony, the distinctive trait of the four days long World Processing Tomato Congress held in Sirmione.

The event saw 550 operators coming from all over the world debating on the future challenges that the sector will have to face: the integration and aggregaton of the chain of tomatoes destined to the processing industry and of the production realities to guarantee a more and more higher competitivity of the sector, quality and traceability, keeping in mind the tutelage of the final consumer.

And these are the topics to which must be added the need for education of the final consumer, that were shared on the occasion of the round table that closed the congress and that saw big players of the mass retailing and industry confront each other: Tesco, Coop Italia, ICA, La Doria, Mutti and Conserve Italia. “British consumers – affirms Tesco's Mark Subbady – have forgotten how to cook, in fact, leading the chart of favourite meals (in second place) are sandwiches. In Great Britain, product innovation has often been a synonym of making life easier for consumers, but without eduucating him. In this sense, along with a known Italian past producer, we have decided to tell kids in elementary schools, through videos, the agro food chain”.

Instead, it goes through the proposal of an ad hoc food plan, home delivery, the form of education undertaken by the Swedish ICA which sends to those who have bought the plan not only products but also strictly healthy recipes. To eat better, knowing the products better. This seems to be the mantra that Coop Italia wants to teach the Italian consumer which is still too often guided, in the choice of products, by prices and promotions. “In this sense – affirms Anna Maria Fabbri of Coop Italia – there will be a big effort made through communication in Coop stores, even with informative panels”.

Ended the works in Sirmione, the “Post Congress Tour” started in the afternoon, with articulated program of visits to production places, farms and research institutes that valorize the activities of the territory in the chain, organized in collaboration with the Region of Emilia Romagna. Amongst the main stops there was the Cooperativa CO.PAD.OR, always careful to valorize the raw material tomato. Today, the cooperative counts almost 130 farms as members which cultivate every year up to 4.000 ha, employing the most modern cultivation techniques, always in compliance of the precedural guideline of Integrated Production of the Emilia Romagna Region and of the international protocol Global-Gap.

“About 300.000 tons of fresh tomatoes are processed every year in puree, pulps, cubes, concentrated and sauces. All thanks to modern implants with a daily production capacity of almost 6.000 tons of tomatoes and in perspective of an ongoing quality research – affirms Thierry Babbini, CEO of CO.PAD.OR”. Already certified as UNI EN ISO 9001, ISO 14.001, BRC, IFS, KOSHER, the Cooperative has in fact adhered to the European standard EMAS, extending to its members its own system of traceability ISO 22005 and the Global-Gap protocol for the whole raw material.

“Our certifications – continues Babbini – aim at protecting the health of the consumer, of workers. Respect for the environment, the attention to the territory, are fundamental values for our cooperative that represents the perfect union between Italian food tradition and the most modern industrial technologies”.

The World Processing Tomato Congress was organized by AMITOM – Association Méditerranéenne internationale de la Tomate, by the World Processing Tomato Council, by ISHS, the world's most important organization of fruit and vegetables sciences which operates in 50 countries, and by Fiere di Parma.

Source de l'article GreenMedJournal