From Valfrutta to Cirio, the leader of the canned food industry raises the price alarm: with high oil prices forced to revise price lists
The alarm of the cooperative giant with 14,000 members: strong impact of price increases in farming and industry. Maxi investment plan to reduce energy costs
Key points
The impact of soaring fuel costs is bound to leave its mark and 'there will be inevitable increases in the future for our products'. Pier Paolo Rossetti, General Manager of Conserve Italia, the leading company in vegetable preserves (tomato derivatives and fruit juices) that boasts popular brands from Valfrutta to Yoga, from Cirio to Derby in its portfolio, puts it bluntly.
The alarm from the leading vegetable canning co-op
Conserve Italia is a leading company in the processed fruit and vegetable sector, a cooperative giant grouping 35 first-grade cooperatives with 14,000 farmers who annually produce around 600,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables for processing for a turnover of EUR 1.1 billion.
Rise in fuel costs impacts all processing stages
'Our supply chain,' Rossetti explained, 'is strongly impacted by the rising cost of fuel, and it is so at all stages. In the future of our products there will be inevitable increases. Increases that at the moment are not quantifiable and will not be the same for all products. We want to measure them carefully and bring them to the fore when we have the full picture. But, for sure, these are increases that in the medium term will reach consumer products and supermarket shelves.
Recourse to diesel to power irrigation pumps is growing
The main culprit for the cost explosion is the price of fuel. "The high price of petrol has primarily affected the agricultural production phase," adds the general manager of Conserve Italia, "there are the machines used in the countryside and there is the need to irrigate.
A need that is now increasing with the approach of summer and the gradual rise in temperatures. This increases the consumption of diesel due to the use of pumps for irrigation.
