HAZELNUTS The framework agreement for the valorization of Piedmont hazelnuts has been signed between Coldiretti Piemonte and the Novi Elah Dufour confectionery group. A supply chain project that allows the valorisation of all Piedmontese hazelnut production, offering a medium-term perspective to agricultural entrepreneurs. Speakers at the Coldiretti Piemonte headquarters in Turin were Cristina Brizzolari, president of Coldiretti Piemonte, Mauro Bianco, president of Coldiretti Alessandria and member of the Coldiretti Piemonte board with territorial delegation to the hazelnut sector, Bruno Rivarossa, confederal delegate, Guido Repetto, president of the Elah Dufour Novi group, and Giovanni Brusasca, president of Monferrato Frutta, a cooperative that will act as a glue. The president of Coldiretti Cuneo Enrico Nada and the director Fabiano Porcu also participated in the meeting.
The Piedmontese hazelnut sector has 2 thousand companies with 27 thousand hectares of cultivated area for a total production of approximately 200 thousand quintals and almost 80 million euros in turnover. The Province of Cuneo is particularly suited to the production of hazelnuts, so much so that as many as 1,300 companies in Cuneo cultivate them on an area of 13 thousand hectares, for an average total production of 140 thousand quintals.
In 10 years the cultivated area has increased by 80 percent
«The Piedmont hazelnut sector is growing so much that in 10 years the cultivated area has increased by 80%. The quality of the Tonda Gentile Trilobata is absolute, its characteristics make it a valuable and sought-after product. Our commitment must be to offer absolute excellence and this supply chain agreement goes precisely in that direction”, declares Enrico Nada, president of Coldiretti Cuneo.
«A framework agreement that establishes the union with the virtuous agro-industry, the one that wants to invest in the territory and consolidate the bond», explains the director of Coldiretti Cuneo Fabiano Porcu. «Support for hazelnut farming and companies that believe in quality production, committing themselves with their work to preserving the territories».
«We are renewing a supply chain agreement for another 5 years, now extended throughout Piedmont», was the comment of Guido Repetto, president of the Elah Dufour Novi group. «Since we took over Novi in 1985, with the aim of transforming it into a leading company, we have always believed in bringing local hazelnut producers together for our products, and this is the thread that binds us to Coldiretti. For us the company must be an expression of the territory, of the people who represent it and of the raw materials it can offer: if we think of hazelnuts, therefore, we think of hazelnuts from Piedmont”.
