AOP Gruppo ViVa

Marco Casalini (left) and Mario Tamanti (right)

Five of Italy's largest producer organisations are set to contribute around €37m per annum over the next five years to form a new alliance, one they believe will help them to fare better on the global market in the face of intense competition.

The Gruppo ViVa association brings together Apofruit Italia, Pempacorer, Sole, Codma and Terra di Bari, all of them major names in the Italian fresh produce business.

Terremerse president Marco Casalini will assume the same role at the group, while Apofruit managing director Mario Tamanti will take charge of its day-to-day running.

'We really wanted to aggregate into an AOP, because the increasingly difficult and competitive international market is now frequently creating strong tensions in the supply-demand relationship to the detriment of member producers' remuneration,' Casalini explained.

'It's for this reason that new strategies are required that set up common processes and new development initiatives.'

Gruppo ViVa will stand out as very much a giant of the European fresh fruit and vegetable sector, bringing together a total of 5,138 individual producers turning over around €400m per year.

The five-year budget set aside for the project will be spent on creating a network of mutually beneficial investments in the areas of product and varietal development, establishing organic and high-quality production, communal marketing and merchandising strategies through the partner companies' various branches, branding policies and the development of exports and new markets.

The group will also aim to harness the potential of its greater, consolidated presence in the marketplace by managing preventative measures and market withdrawals where necessary, as well as running joint promotional activities.

'The Gruppo ViVa's stated priority is to achieve an increased level of competitiveness by pursuing bigger objectives that would not otherwise be within the reach of a single producer organisation,' Tamanti added.

'We are together not only to co-ordinate and manage our operational programme together, but also to create real integration that will allow us to develop our respective skills, reduce costs and position ourselves better in the market to create value for our respective members.'