Re-launch of the Agro-food Business Unit
Interview with Luigi Rossi
Sacco System has decided to reorganize its Agro-food division by proposing new product lines, inserting new qualified personnel and giving the leadership of the BU to Dr Luigi Rossi, a man with great experience in the development of sales networks and business start-ups worldwide.
To get to know this new structure better, we interviewed Dr Rossi.
Dr Rossi, you have worked for decades in the Dairy business. What prompted you to accept the challenge to change the sector and shift focus on the Agro-food world? What exactly is meant by Agro-food?
My Dairy team and I have experienced exciting years, during which we have built a worldwide network by selecting the best distribution channels and sharing with them a partnership path that has allowed business developments in more than 110 countries around the world.
The new role of Commercial Director of the Agro-food Business Unit has a particularly important significance to me. By leveraging my accumulated experience, I will give my contribution to positioning Sacco System in new emerging sectors that foresees very important growth trends in the upcoming years.
The new Agro-food BU is made up of several market segments, all of which are nonetheless characterized by one important element they share, namely the innovation and enhancement of our microorganisms as an added value to our customers’ production processes.
The probiotics we offer for the Plants and livestock sector allow, in addition to improving the health of plants and animals, to increase yields by reducing, or in many cases even eliminating, the use of antibiotics, pesticides, chemical fertilizers. We are fully aware of the relevance this element carries in the choice made by the final consumer.
The meat sector will also enjoy the benefit of improving the production and shelf life of its products through the use of our protective cultures.
The company is also expanding its interest to explore other areas such as fermented food and the beverage sector, experimenting with cultures that improve the aroma of fruit-based drinks, and the production of bread and other baked products.
Research and development have always been a fundamental pillar for Sacco, also in light of our growth-oriented mentality. For what concerns the plant sector, the company has recently signed a collaboration agreement with a technological platform, Landlab, to cooperate in the testing of innovative microorganisms, both in vitro (greenhouse) and directly in the field.
You mention an impressively wide range of applications for the use of cultures and probiotics: from meat to fish, bread, vegetables and fermented drinks. What prompted you to expand the product portfolio?
All of our customers, in the various sectors mentioned, have as a primary interest in the production of goods characterized by high safety levels. Keeping this main goal in mind, our process and protection crops allow us to obtain stable fermentation, avoiding the deterioration of the product thanks to a "natural flora", which becomes the antagonist of unwanted microorganisms, such as Listeria monocytogenes.
Cultures can also be used as an alternative to yeast for consumers who wish to switch to a diet without added yeasts; a real revolution for yeast-intolerant people, and even more so for gourmets, continuously in search of particular products reminiscing of the ancestral tastes of leavened bread and cakes.
The use of our crops has therefore become "transversal" to multiple sectors, ranging from the dairy sector to many other markets in the food and agri-food sector.
Which markets are you targeting?
Certainly, Italy remains a country in focus, especially for the cured meat sector. However, we always keep an eye on the world and on global trends, such as the great increase in the demand for fermented beverages, "dairy alternative" beverages, as well as the greater care and attention being paid to the overall well-being of plants and animals.
We will target our offer to the B2B sector by designing with it not only commercial development but also a development network made up of qualified technical application personnel.
For each sector we have technical specialists who also have specific technical application expertise, thus providing a consultancy service, which could be easily defined as “from start to finish”.
What about the future?
I would say that there are already many applications we are working on right now, but we also know that it is essential to never stop and always try to innovate.
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