Bovino: the chain of dreams
Michele Dedda is a grain storage operator from Bovino, in the heart of the province of Foggia. Houses in Bovino seem to hug onto each other, suspended over a sea of wind and wheat, nearly suspended in time. It's only a suggestion, though, because in this marvellous hamlet, dressed in colours of long ago, sowing wheat means sowing their future.
The good air, the earth and the great quality products that this land produces, starting from grain to grapes, from tomatoes to olives: we have this and is a great heritage.
Speaking as a citizen, in our Tavoliere, in our Puglia, in our Southern Italy we do not need large industries, we need to enhance what we already have and today, finally, this awareness is moving wide, especially in the consciences of our children.
We don't need big industries, we need to enhance what we already have.
From cattle, from the wheat fields of this place forced in a time, the future appears closer. Michele Dedda's words convey hope, a conscious hope:
"Parents are more to understand it, while young people have greater sensitivity. Because the chimera of the permanent place, of the easy expatriation, of finding work outside their habitat is now, in fact, a chimera".
Our southern young people, educated to go to university and therefore take other paths, understand that today the future is called territory. It is up to us who are around these guys, support them and guide them with the example.
And from this point of view, the Armando supply chain represents an encouragement, a virtuous model to extend to other areas.
A virtuous model that if on the one hand resolves in a production model that guarantees all the actors of the supply chain, on the other it produces roots, identity, territoriality:
The Armando supply chain affects because it guarantees the agricultor a fair price. Our farmers and the De Matteis pasta factory sat around a table to calculate the production cost of a quintal of wheat, thus guaranteeing a minimum sale price.
This is the starting point, which is followed by a review of the price on the basis of the market, which if rises, is recognized by the company. On the contrary, if the market price drops, it does not go below the minimum guaranteed price.
We therefore have a parachute that allows you to cover the expenses and a profit margin if the market price is not favorable.
From sowing to the harvest we follow the entire process by assisting our associates. We provide the seed, we make technical assistance through our agronomists or the pasta factory rather than the Syngenta company that assists us in the technical part of cultivation.
When the wheat arrives here we are sure that it is wheat that is part of this chain, which has those characteristics of suitability for transformation and we are sure of the origin of the product.
The result? In my house for three years you only eat Armando pasta. My children immediately notice if on the plate there is a different pasta and I don't think this is worth only for them. Bovino is a small center, a community of 3500 inhabitants and many of our farmers are part of the Armando community. We have done product promotion activities and today all cattle stores sell Armando pasta. The awareness of the importance of enhancing the link between the fruit of the earth and the product that derives from it has been created.
The goal is therefore to place a product on the market and make it known. Then, once known, he sells himself, no longer needs that the advertising to promote him will come out every day because it is a word of mouth: a good product is sold by itself: and Armando is one of these.
And It is precisely the recovery of identity, identification with the territory, the secret of this new course evoked by Michele. But it is a large -scale territoriality, because this is the added value of our south made up of many colors and shades and for this one:
It would almost be thought that the Armando pasta is produced in Bovino, in reality it is produced with the grain mainly of the central-southern Italy, and it is not even our aspiration: we do not aspire to a niche product, we aspire to a good product and for everyone, for as many people as possible. Otherwise our dream remains in a drawer, confined in a limited and limited geographical area to a small community, while Grano Armando deserves to be known nationally and internationally.
This supply chain model is an encouragement for our young people, because they see that their parents have objective advantages, because they can understand that on this way you can grow, that there is a possible future here for them too. Indeed, especially for them!
Today agriculture is different, it is more scientific, one must be ready and study. And precisely in this they can find space, studying and stating themselves for a specific purpose.
We are the best in the world in the field of food which is the only future for these territories.
The De Matteis pasta factory has made its dream is also our dream, because it recognizes the efforts of farmers who achieve the goal of producing quantities and quality.
My hope is that these supply chains have a following, that this model created by the De Matteis pasta factory, together with our contribution, can extend to other areas. In Italy there are different industrial realities that thanks to similar networks could raise the fate of agriculture.
