Farming in Italy is not easy, especially for those with small, high-quality productions.
Unforeseen events, difficulties in the marketing phases, organizational limits lead increasingly often the small agricultural entrepreneurs of value to find themselves in difficulty and, sometimes, to sell their business.
In this article we want to briefly describe the daily challenges of agricultural entrepreneurs and tell how Boniviri wants to support them.
Is it worth continuing?
In Italy, small farmers (1) producers of extra virgin olive oil suffer from adverse conditions such as cost increases, risks related to climate change and the difficulty in marketing their products at a fair price.
For these reasons they are often led to abandon agricultural activity and, sometimes, to sell their land.
The data is demonstrated by the decrease in the number of farms (-28% compared to 2013) and by the increase in the average agricultural area used (UAA) of the company, which went from 8.4 in 2013 to 11 ha in 2016 (2).
One path, many risks
The challenges faced by small agricultural enterprises are linked to factors such as the increase in management costs (eg cost of processing), the difficulty in finding quality labor, the difficulty in accessing credit.
To these, there are exogenous factors such as climatic risks and the incidence of extreme climatic episodes (eg hailstorms, heat or cold waves) and the increase in infestations.
Nevertheless, for many farms it is difficult to access safe and profitable sales channels, often finding themselves forced to sell off their products to intermediaries.
Boniviri: a new travel companion
In this context, Boniviri sets itself the goal of safeguarding small Italian farms of value by making them prosperous and sustainable, providing them with economic stability and strengthening their skills in terms of sustainability and productivity.
To do this, Boniviri is committed to offering partner farms a new sales channel, joining forces to present itself on the market with a high quality product that is attentive to sustainability practices. In doing so, it undertakes to remunerate the work of the partner farms with a fair price for each liter of oil, in line with the best quality and work practices (Discover here the Slow Food prospectus: on extra virgin olive oil olive).
Finally, Boniviri plans to offer agricultural companies methodological and training support, through:
🌍 A digital management tool dedicated to farms that can measure their productivity and sustainability practices
🚜Support activities dedicated by the Boniviri team along the production phases and opportunities for methodological comparison with other companies in the area
🌳The adoption of a sustainability and quality protocol for farms
Through this approach, for Boniviri the partner farms are not suppliers, but travel companions.
[1] Over half of the companies surveyed by ISTAT in 2016 have an economic dimension, measured in terms of standard production (Standard Output), of less than 8,000 euros. The average size is around 45,000 euros but, also in this case, with strong fluctuations between one region and another, with values below the average for the southern regions. Source: https://www.crea.gov .it / documents / 20126/0 / ITACONTA_2019_def_WEB +% 281% 29.pdf / falls3a7d-8406-185c-5472-0c5d89892f7b? t = 1579707434578
[2] The data is shown by the decrease in the number of farms (-28% compared to 2013) and by the increase in the average agricultural area used (UAA) of the farm, which went from 8.4 in 2013 to 11 ha in 2016. survey on the structure and production of farms (SPA) is a sample survey carried out by ISTAT every three years in the intercensory periods.
Source: https://www.crea.gov.it/documents/20126/0/ITACONTA_2019_def_WEB+%281%29.pdf/cade3a7d-8406-185c-5472-0c5d89892f7b?t=1579707434578
