TURIN – The agri-food sector and the climate challenge: prospects and strategies for Piedmont.
THE AGRI-FOOD SECTOR AND THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE
Extreme weather events such as fires, floods and droughts have become the main unknown for Piedmont’s 3,600 agri-food and beverage industries which employ 38,000 people. To provide an overview of the political and financial tools to support this supply chain, Confindustria Piemonte and Confindustria Cuneo in collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, organized the conference ‘The agri-food sector and the climate challenge’ in the association headquarters in the capital of Granda. “Piedmontese agri-food is ready to face the climate challenge, thanks to the quality of its products recognized globally also thanks to the direct commitment to the sustainability of processes and supply chains. An excellent state of health also confirmed by the data provided by our companies for the economic survey relating to this quarter; in fact, in the food sector the intention to increase investments and employment, production and exports is clearly evident thanks to strong medium-long term orders increase. In addition to the climate challenge, companies are also worried about the increase in the costs of raw materials and logistics, which impact profitability and combine with a particularly complex international scenario. These are issues that the institutions know about, there is broad agreement, there will be maximum commitment and collaboration” explained Marco Brugo Ceriotti, President of the Agrindustria Commission of Confindustria Piemonte for a few days, which represents 366 companies, of which 168 in the Cuneo area, for a total of over 20 thousand employees, of which half in the Granda.
PROSPECTS AND STRATEGIES FOR PIEDMONT
To open the proceedings, the institutional greeting from Chiara Bardini, President of the Agri-food Section of Confindustria Cuneo: “The effects of climate change on the activity of agri-food companies have been quite evident, also in terms of higher costs: sugars, flours, milk and derivatives, cocoa are agricultural commodities which have undergone strong price fluctuations in the last two years, caused even from harvests below expectations. The changed conditions have significantly impacted the procurement strategies of processing companies, which found themselves having to evaluate sudden changes in the availability of the main commodities. It therefore becomes essential to implement strategies within our companies that take into consideration increasingly careful control of agricultural supply chains not only locally, comparing themselves with the agricultural policies implemented at a European level”.
AGRICULTURAL POLICY
Stefania Crotta, Director of Environment, Energy and Territory of the Piedmont Region, then took the floor and in her speech underlined how in the Common Agricultural Policy for the period 2023–2027 there is a financial allocation of 750 million euros for the Development Complement rural, from which over 50 thousand farms on one million hectares of agricultural area will benefit in the coming years. Of these, approximately 257 million euros are allocated to agro-climate-environmental measures, while approximately 268 million are intended to support investments by companies and businesses. In this programming, the ERDF Regional Program 2021-2027 also allocates important resources, around 202 million, to combat climate change, disaster risk prevention and resilience.
THE INTERVENTIONS
Pasquale Di Rubbo, team leader of the Agri Directorate General of the European Commission, and Enrica Spiga, Research Department of Intesa Sanpaolo, then spoke. Followed by a round table dedicated to some business stories. This second part of the proceedings was opened by Lorenza Cipollina, Head of Communication & Government Affairs at Mondelez, who spoke about Fattorie Osella’s commitment to sustainability. Then it was the turn of Fausto Rinaudo, CEO of Granda Zuccheri and Trae, Paolo Sartirano, owner of Sartirano Figli cantine e vigneti and Roberto Signetti, commercial manager of Molino Signetti&C. In conclusion, the interventions of Federico Spanna, from the phytosanitary and scientific technological services sector of the Piedmont Region, and Piermario Romagnoli, director of the Agribusiness area of Southern Piedmont and Liguria Intesa Sanpaolo who underlined how “a territory rich in excellence like Piedmont, which in 2023 has continued to increase exports from agri-food districts by more than 2%, it must pay attention to the climate emergency and its repercussions by investing in sustainability and in the modernization of production and governance processes. Projects that Intesa Sanpaolo, thanks to the Agribusiness Department, allows to address by providing companies with innovative services and support for daily operations with specialized consultancy in the field of sustainable development, protection and internationalization through long-term investments in relation to the Agribusiness Programme. A program that is an integral part of the broader ‘Your future is our business’ plan which has allocated 120 billion euros for businesses until 2026”.
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