Base de données des projets PDR

In the middle of Italy, a consortium of cooperatives and producers inspired by a local Nature Reserve, bought the equipment needed to set-up an innovative, high-value supply-chain of ready-to-use potatoes, achieving good results.

The Consorzio Pataticoltori del Viterbese (CO.PA.VIT.) is a consortium among potato producers that was set-up in 2008. Its establishment was promoted by a local Nature Reserve (“Monte Rufeno”), as a result of the consultation among local stakeholders concerning the future sustainable development of the area. The Consortium soon realised that in order to achieve its original mission and to create added value for the producers it needed to create a modern plant where to process the potatoes. The plant was set-up in late 2010, but it needed to be complemented with adequate equipment to operate.

The completion of the potato plant and the purchase of modern equipment were prompted by the need to qualify and strengthen the cooperative’s potato supply-chain value, enabling to directly prepare and sell a new line of product: 5 distinct types of peeled potatoes. The new plant also aimed at increasing cooperation among the hundreds of potato producers active in this part of Lazio region: a production of more than 50 000 tonnes of potato was at stake, and more than 600 producers were involved.

Funding from measure 123 was mainly used to purchase modern equipment to prepare the potatoes. It included: a cleaning section (with pressurized air); a peeling unit; a main conveyor belt, where the workers separate the potatoes that do not comply with quality standards; a cutter to prepare the five, distinct potato sizes; a precision optical selector; an ozone-dispensing machine that prevents the blackening of peeled potatoes; and a packaging machine, able to prepare bags up to 5 kilos.

Selling 'ready-to-use' potatoes provided value added to a part of the production that buyers would not purchase due to minor problems (e.g. small size). The plant gathered the producers under one organisation (the Consortium) thus preventing possible competition among them. The project fostered the start of other initiatives concerning the sustainable management of potatoes. The plant was the reference point for starting the process to achieve the PGI certification of Alto Viterbese Potato.

Although sometimes cooperation among the actors of the food supply-chain is not always successful, this project shows that it is feasible to gather a large number of farmers and producers and make them follow the same path under a commonly agreed objective, the development of the territory focused on an improved product and process, also involving other stakeholders (e.g. universities).

The project is located in the industrial area of Aquapendente, Viterbo province- Lazio region.

Lazio

Lazio

761 604

134 042

170 600

456 962

Massimo Bedini

direzione@monterufeno.it

+39 0763 733442

Italian