Farming in Italy is not easy, especially for those with small, high-quality productions.
Unexpected events, difficulties in marketing phases, and organizational limits increasingly cause valuable small farmers to face challenges and sometimes sell their farms.
In this article, we want to briefly describe the daily challenges of farmers and explain how Boniviri aims to support them.
In Italy, small farmers producing extra virgin olive oil suffer from adverse conditions such as rising costs, risks related to climate change, and difficulties in marketing their products at a fair price.
For these reasons, they are often forced to abandon farming and sometimes sell their land.
This is evidenced by the decrease in the number of farms (-28% compared to 2013) and the increase in the average utilized agricultural area (UAA) per farm, which rose from 8.4 hectares in 2013 to 11 hectares in 2016.
The challenges faced by small agricultural businesses are linked to factors such as rising management costs (for example, processing costs), difficulty finding quality labor, and limited access to credit.
Added to these are external factors like climate risks and the occurrence of extreme weather events (for example, hailstorms, heatwaves, or cold spells) and increased infestations.
However, for many farms, accessing secure and profitable sales channels is difficult, often forcing them to undersell their products to intermediaries.
In this context, Boniviri aims to protect valuable small Italian farms by making them prosperous and sustainable, providing economic stability and strengthening their skills in sustainability and productivity.
To achieve this, Boniviri is committed to offering partner farms a new sales channel, joining forces to present a high-quality product attentive to sustainable practices on the market.
In this way, it commits to fairly compensating the work of partner farms with a fair price for each liter of oil, in line with the best quality and labor practices.
Finally, Boniviri intends to offer farms methodological and training support through:
- A digital management tool dedicated to farms capable of measuring their productivity and sustainability practices.
- Support activities provided by the Boniviri team throughout the production phases and opportunities for methodological exchange with other local farms.
- The adoption of a sustainability and quality protocol for farms.
- Through this approach, for Boniviri, partner farms are not suppliers but travel companions.
