The BIOP producer organization, located in Cesena, represents leading organic and traditional companies from all over Italy and is part of AOP Italia. It was created in 2018 to gather leading businesses and brands and apply high-quality protocols and centralized services with the aim of supplying a wide range of products, qualify Italian productions and simplify the relationships with the big retail chain and foreign importers. The frost in April compromised good part of the productions in Italy. Luca Canonici, president of BIOP, illustrates the damage in its production areas located all over Italy and talks about the tools to be implemented against future damage. "The frost was heavy and was accompanied by an abnormal spring. Now it the time to assess the actual damage and, although there are some differences, I can say the situation will be better than 2020 as we expect the volumes of peaches, nectarines and apricots to be 50% higher than last year, while the volumes of kiwifruit and plums should remain stable. I am sure our partners will manage to guarantee normal supplies to their Italian and European clients." What do you think of the effects caused by the frost over the past few years and what are you doing to counter them? "This situation puts the whole Italian production sector to the test. We are doing everything possible to help partners against weather events, as we provide them with assistance to access funds to set up anti-rain and anti-hail covers, fans and anti-frost systems. To enable consumers to keep enjoying Italian produce, we will have to invest on crop protection, but we expect the market to reward our produce with a suitable price without preferring imported fruit and vegetables." Sergio Panini, marketing consultant at BIOP, confirms: "We are expecting a good demand from our clients, considering the quality of our products and their lower availability. BIOP productions come from partners employing organic and traditional techniques. Our flexibility, swiftness and efficient logistics enable us to supply small stores as well as big retail chains in Italy, Europe and the world." Luca Canonici concludes: "We keep working on innovating the production processes. In addition tot the above-mentioned anti-rain and anti-rain systems, we are working with highly specialized companies such as Cyberwawe Srl for robotization, to implement technologies linked to agro-voltaic, to optimize fertigation to safeguard water resources, for compostable and recyclable packaging and to guarantee blockchain traceability. All of this is done with a view to the future and to maintain our PO active so as to meet market expectations." Source - https://www.freshplaza.com