The Emilia-Romagna agroindustry cluster,
and the fruit and vegetable chain
Alessandro ZAMPAGNA
Centuria RIT – Romagna Innovazione Tecnologia
General Manager
Adriatic Danubian Clustering
Udine, 14 February 2011
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1. The cluster concept
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Agro-food cluster
NOT top-down planning
But
Self-originated and self-sustaining concentration of enterprises
Fostered by local specialised services and funding
The local government does not “create” clusters but helps the
start-up and growth of the cluster through a support system
composed of funding and especially services
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Agrofood agroindustry cluster
NOT a simple concentration of food processing enterprises
But
COMPLETE FOOD CHAIN SEGMENTS
MACHINERY AND SERVICES
INTEGRATION
COMMON ROOTS
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The agrofood sector development
1900-1950 1960
1950-1970 : The modernisation
of the agrofood sector
GROWTH
Cereals, Beets, Fruits and Vegs
Animal husbandry
Sugar industry Fruits & Vegs trade Seeds and nurseries Wine
Feed production
1970
Milk and cheese Meat Processing
The agroindustry cluster development
1970 - 2000
1970-2000 :
The development of the
Agroindustry Cluster
INTEGRATION
Farm machinery
Processing machinery
Refrigeration plants
Packaging
Logistics
Biotechnologies (in vitro, biological control, fermentation,
extractions)
Information technology
The cluster r-evolution
The R-EVOLUTION of the new millennium:
2000 - ….
The fall of agricultural product prices
The farewell of the sugar industry
La “vanishing” community funds
The Transport industry rationalisation
The opening international food product market
The “media” crisis (BSE, flue, dioxin)
Growing strategy differences of the three steps of the food chain:
- Agriculture WHAT? What are we going to do?
- Food HOW? How to be more competitive?
- Machinery WHERE? Where to look for new markets?
The cluster re-engineering
The REACTION:
2000 - …..
• The confusion of the farmers
• Mergers of food enterprises (especially coop)
• The new non-food chain
• The internationalisation of machinery enterprises
• Searching for integrated logistic
Which policy for the three segments of the chain?
Is it possible to re-integrate the cluster?
DOES THE AGROINDUSTRY CLUSTER STILL EXIST?
The cluster re-engineering
The 2000s cluster policy :
2000 - …..
INNOVATION
Organisation Technology
Agriculture Bigger farms New crops
New networks
Processing New commercial New processes,
solutions consumer-tailored
products, ICT
Machinery International growth High tech
A POLICY TO INTEGRATE THE CLUSTER?
Innovation & Services (information, networks, R&D, finance)
The regional Service Centres Network
Regional Administration
ERVET ASTER
Cluster environment Cluster A Cluster B
Centuria RIT Agricultural farms Agricultural farms
CRPV, CRPA Coops Coops
Experimental farms Processing companies Processing companies
University & Machinery companies Machinery companies
Research Centres
Service companies Service companies
Training Centres
….. …..
Labs
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3. The role of cooperatives in
Emilia-Romagna agrofood clusters
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Agricultural Coops in Emilia-Romagna
Emilia-Romagna agricultural gross product
amounts at 4,000 millions Euro.
More than 50% of the agricultural produce is
managed by cooperatives.
Cooperatives have had a primary role in the
development of the cluster.
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How Coops were born
FIRST-GENERATION COOPERATIVES
• «Defensive» objectives: to protect members from market
risks and to reduce costs through scale economies
• “Decision Centre”: Board of Directors, composed of
farmers, and Assembly «one head one vote"
• Evolution:
Difficulties in maintaining margins
Develop new higher valued added activities along the
chain (new-generation cooperatives)
Mergers or alliances to obtain greater scale
economies
The evolution of Coops
NEW-GENERATION COOPERATIVES
• «Offensive strategy»: scale economies in activities closer to
the consumers (processing, logistics, marketing), in order to
get more value added. They try not to sell commodities but
higher-value products.
• Complete vertical integration, to obtain control of the
whole chain.
• Or strategic alliances with companies (even non coops) with
synergic expertise.
The principles of New-generation Coops
• Agricultural prices comes from the market; it is not
realistic to think of control the agricultural product
price.
• Value Added is present all along the chain; every step of
the chain to the consumer, gets a higher quota of Value
Added.
• To get more Value Added, it is necessary to invest in
activities along the chain and get closer to the consumer.
• Farmer income = agricultural product price + return
from the investment along the chain
Some examples in the fruit and
vegetable cluster
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Diversificazione e
segmentazione
PIU’ GUSTO AL BENESSERE
• ricchi di fibre
• basso contenuto di grassi
Ricchi di:
• fibre
• vitamine
Il biologico e la tracciabilità
To foster internationalisation of fruit and vegetable
cluster companies in the Mediterranean
A bridge between the fruit and vegetable
cluster and the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Fruit Company
27 Italian companies (in majority from Emilia-Romagna) in
different businesses of the fruit and vegetable cluster, have
decided to cooperate in order to promote their activities in
the Mediterranean:
Fresh fruit and vegetable production and marketing
Packaging
Machinery
Services
M.F.C. offices
MFC Italy
MFC Egypt
MFC Tunisia
MFC Turkey
MFC Russia
3. The role of Centuria RIT
Romagna Innovation Technology
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The mission of Centuria RIT
CENTURIA-RIT IS A SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PARK
AIMED AT ENHANCING THE COMPETITIVENESS OF
THE TERRITORY AND OF LOCAL ENTERPRISES
THROUGH INNOVATION
It is at the same time:
A crossway between institutions, enterprises and research to
foster information exchange, technology transfer, contacts.
A system of relationships, fed with added value services, to
provide better access to knowledge, innovation, markets and
capitals.
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The environment
sede di Faenza sede di Cesena
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The environment
INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURES
- University
Agriculture, Food Science, Engineering, Information
Science, Economics, Languages, Architecture, Psychology
- Analysis and R&D Laboratories
- Research centres
- Training centres
- Specialised international exhibitions
- Available industrial facilities
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The “soft” solution
All the innovation infrastructures are present in the territory:
No need for new incubators, laboratories, greenfield
investments, etc.
The need is to increase the relationship between the actors of
the territory to increase innovation.
Hence the “SOFT” solution:
Public private investment
Majority of private capital
No direct “hard” investment:
“Soft” activities only: networking, information, innovation
brokerage, R&D project, etc.
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The stakeholders
Companies Research &
Leading training
companies Local faculties of the
Associations of University of Bologna
entrepreneurs CNR, ENEA
Banks Research centres
65% shares Laboratories
0% shares
Local government
Municipalities, Provinces, Chambers of commerce
Local health and environment authorities
35% shares 37
The logical framework
INFORMATION AND NETWORK PROJECTS AND SERVICES
New Info R&D Tech
s Transf
MEMBERS
Patent &
Financ Intangible
tech
e s
monitoring
Work
groups
Internationalisation
Seminars
conference
s R&D
Tech
COMMUNITY
Publication
Transf
s
Financ
Area e
marketing New
entrepreneurship
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1st activity: relationships network
Information flow to Information flow
the territory from the territory
Selected information on
Area marketing
patents and technology
Relationship with
Commercial and joint- investors
venture opportunities
Common marketing
Selections of the operations
competencies useful for
the territory
Relationship inside the territory
Between companies, laboratories, R&D centres, university, public
administration, financial institutions
Meetings, seminars, company open days
Management of shared projects: start-ups, R&D, various collaborations 39
2nd activity: Specialised services
Institutions
Banks
Syndicates of entrepreneurs project management
Universities
R&D centres
data mining
market analyses
technology transfer
SME
research and development
SME
S.T.P. business connections
SME
new business start up
venture capital connections
SME
training
SME JV development
SME SME Big industrial
groups
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The outcomes
Concrete outcomes (projects, No building
funding, patents, new (ex. laboratories,
companies, etc.) incubators), just offices
Satisfaction of the associates No ad hoc public funding
Low cost (flexible and light 80% of the investment in
structure) professional personnel and
Information and
Communication
Technology
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Thank you
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