Association urges producers worldwide to develop similar projects that move towards shared sustainability standard
Suppliers across Italy say they want to see fruit and veg producers in other countries launch initiatives similar to their own Generazione Ortofrutta, a multi-million-euro project that aims to create a common sustainability standard for the fruit and vegetable sector.
Their project is driven by national association Italia Ortofrutta, which is working with its member producer organisations (POs), the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry (Masaf), and leading scientific experts to develop the standard.
Originally presented earlier this year at Macfrut in Rimini, the project made its international debut at Fruit Attraction in Madrid this week, where Italia Ortofrutta’s president Andrea Badursi used the opportunity to present the initiative’s work to an international audience.
“A standard of this kind cannot be built in isolation,” he insisted. “It requires critical mass and a shared vision. This is where Italia Ortofrutta can play an important role, bringing the industry and institutions together.”
The project already has approximately €148mn in funding, drawn in part from Italy’s EU-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), a major programme of investment and economic reform designed to modernise the Italian economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.
It also has the backing of Masaf’s so-called Complementary Fund, a €30.6bn investment programme established by the Italian government in 2021 to supplement the PNRR.
Implementation phase
A group of 28 POs across 18 Italian regions, representing 6,246 growers and approximately 35,000ha of cultivated land, will be the first to implement and test the sustainability standard.
According to current plans, the first certified production could reach the market from next year.
“Until now, many of the sustainability efforts made by companies in our sector have not received sufficient visibility, and the value generated has often been captured elsewhere,” suggested Vincenzo Falconi, director of Italia Ortofrutta.
“At the same time, the different dimensions of sustainability are currently covered by a range of different certification schemes. We believe this new step is necessary to provide greater clarity and to give the sector a single, consistent set of parameters that can be easily recognised by the market and consumers, in Italy and abroad.”
As an association, Italia Ortofrutta brings together more than 160 producer organisations across Italy, representing around half of its commercial fresh produce sector.
