RDP Project – The special MOLINO GRASSI supply chains: quality, biodiversity and organic

Operation Type	Financial contribution – Euro
04.02.01	980.000,00
16.02.01	133.404,55
Overall total	1.113.404,55

http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/agriculture/general_framework/l60032_it.htm/

QualitàInBio is a two-year Molino Grassi project in collaboration with

Open Fields srl, Horta srl, Azienda Agraria Sperimentale Stuard and Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna.

Aims:

Incentivise innovation / diversification of production on the basis of market demand and/or services offered.

The project aims to select a number of specific varieties of durum and common wheat (conventional and organic) with strong innovative characteristics. These will be cultivated by primary producers according to production guidelines and delivered to Molino Grassi which will transform them into flour and semolina with similar characteristics, satisfying a market increasingly interested in healthier and higher quality products.

At the same time, as Molino Grassi is a leader in the production of organic products, with the aim of gradually moving away from conventional products towards organic products, a research project has been developed to study the most appropriate cultivation methods for converting these high-quality varieties from conventional into organic products without losing their innovative qualities as, in some cases, such a conversion today usually results in the loss of some of these characteristics.

Incentivise the streamlining and strengthening of logistics activities:

The only processor of the raw material that is the subject of this project, Molino Grassi plans to develop a new automated warehouse for the management and strengthening of logistics activities regarding the finished and packaged product of the supply chain.

Incentivise process innovations aimed at improving the intrinsic quality and healthiness of the product:

The automation of the logistics process will increase safety levels when managing lots of the finished products, enabling the product to be tracked in real time with a consequent increase in its intrinsic quality.

At the same time, the investment priorities of the producers of the raw material regard the environment, innovation and quality, in accordance with the aims of the supply chain project, i.e.:

• incentivise an improvement in the efficiency of the production cycle using low environmental impact crop-growing techniques;
• incentivise the innovation/diversification of products on the basis of market demand: sewing of special high-quality varieties and organic crops;
• incentivise the storage and conservation phase: investments in warehouses and/or storage silos;
• incentivise process innovations aimed at improving the quality and healthiness of the product: use of innovative equipment for precision agriculture and decision support systems.

Research project: QualitàinBio.

Molino Grassi plans to develop a research project with the following goals: 

• improve the innovative quality of organic common and durum wheat crops grown on the plains to meet secondary processing and consumer needs. This objective marries with the gradual switch from conventional to organic products and the expansion of organic small grain cereal cultivation areas from the mountains/hills to the plains; 
• promote cereal crop biodiversity defining effective sales pitches connected with nutritional and health aspects.

More specifically, the aim is to identify agronomic techniques (choice of varietal, predecessor, defence strategies against plant pathogens, weed control) to apply in organic crop fields, particularly on fertile plains, which make it possible to diversify the quality of the grains.

Expected results

The proposed project aims to produce the following results: 

• increase in business turnover through the development of products with improved qualities (requested by the market) which can be marketed at a higher price than more conventional products;
• increase in quantities of exported products thanks to growing global demand for high-quality products;
• consolidation of employment levels as outlined in an agreement with the social partners (attached to the supply chain project) which guarantees the development of employment and improved levels of occupational safety;
• the automation of the production process will guarantee better safety and working conditions than at present;
• the automation of the production process will also significantly reduce per unit production costs;
• the products that are the subject of the investment, directly available to the end consumer with excellent quality and nutritional properties, fully satisfy the new demands of the global market, increasingly focused on highly innovative products that are healthy for consumers.