Since the nineties, Rigoni di Asiago has chosen the path of organic farming, quality raw materials and respect for the territory. Andrea Rigoni tells us why, and what it means to be sustainable.
These are the people of the Asiago plateau. Those who lived through the Great War up close. Very close. People bound to their land, who for that reason respect it, almost venerate it. And it is from that bond with the territory and nature that Rigoni di Asiago was born, in some sense.
See the photos of the Asiago plateau made unrecognisable by bad weather
The company is engaged in the production and marketing of products derived more than 98 per cent from organic farming. Alongside the traditional production of honey — which began in the 1920s with a small family-run apiary — the Group has developed a range of jams made with organic fruit and sweetened with organic apple juice, Nocciolata and fruit juices. Organic farming, quality raw materials, healthy products. This, in a few words, is the company's philosophy. We spoke about it with Andrea Rigoni, president of the group.
In recent years the Rigoni di Asiago brand has grown considerably. It's impossible not to find one of your products on supermarket shelves. How did your story begin, where did you start out, and what are your numbers today?
Our story begins with our grandmother who, after returning to her land once the First World War was over, brought with her some beehives, having learnt beekeeping in the Varese area. She was a refugee of the nineteenth century. The bees were always a support for the family, and Rigoni di Asiago was born with her children Mario and Paolo. We then expanded our production to include jams, Nocciolata, fruit juices and a natural sweetener made from apples. Our world is that of organic. We chose this path, accepting a reduction in volumes along the way. Being big doesn't just mean doing big numbers. It means making quality products. We ourselves are the first consumers, and we like to create products by thinking about what we enjoy too. The outlook is different from that of a company whose only goal is numbers.
Organic farming in Italy is in good health: cultivated areas are growing (+7.5 per cent compared to 2014), operators are growing (+8.2 per cent compared to 2014), and sales are growing (+15 per cent compared to 2014). But it isn't only the domestic market that is delivering excellent results: exports have grown by as much as 408 per cent compared to 2008 and by 16 per cent compared to a year ago. You chose this path more than 20 years ago, in "unsuspecting times". Why?
Since the nineties we have been producing organic products — we come from that world. Large companies see organic farming as one more difficulty; we, on the other hand, see an opportunity. It is consumers who want and ask for healthier products, and that has certainly given the market a boost. Our choice, however, was not a market decision but an ethical one. We wanted to make a product that represented us as consumers too, and to do it well.
Organic farming, according to experts, could be one more response to climate change. Soil protection, farming that focuses on biodiversity, limited use of herbicides and pesticides.
By going organic we came to understand that this can be a response to the problems we are experiencing in these years. It can be the response to climate change, to the excessive exploitation of resources, while still continuing to provide food for everyone. Organic can be the answer: it doesn't mean going back to subsistence farming, but building a culture of agriculture. Knowing and making better use of the knowledge we have today in order to produce with less chemistry, or even without any at all. All of this is possible — you just need to take more care of what you are growing.
So you yourselves have begun to produce organic raw materials?
The growth of the business led us to become farmers ourselves. In Bulgaria we found agricultural areas that were more or less abandoned and we bought them. Today we have many productive areas there, for different types of raw materials. Cherries, plums, strawberries, hazelnuts and apples. Then there are blueberries: a good part is picked directly from the forest, in the wild — all fruit of the finest quality, which we harvest at perfect ripeness. We try to offer rare products, to rediscover the flavours of a few decades ago, the flavours of wild fruit. In our products we try to recreate these sensory experiences of fresh fruit.
Honey, jams and Nocciolata are indeed the products that set you apart. What makes them special?
In our production we prioritise preserving the flavour of the fruit and the properties of the nutrients it contains. We achieved this by combining culture, tradition and time-honoured recipes with modern means. The logic is to make the jam at a low temperature throughout the entire production process, right through to pasteurisation. In this way we preserve the nutritional characteristics and the flavour of the fruit as fully as possible.
Why don't you use palm oil?
Because it is part of our logic. For us it was important to have a recipe with a lower fat content than other products on the market. Our fat component is equivalent to that of an olive oil, with a higher organoleptic quality.
Today the business world too is changing rapidly. It seems that the word "sustainability" has become indispensable to a certain way of running a company. What does sustainability — being sustainable — mean to you?
Beyond proclamations, we try to do concrete things: being sustainable starting from production. This runs through transformation, through methods that save energy such as cogeneration and trigeneration. Then there is the most important part: the company must live within its territory. That is why our human resources come from these lands, with which we maintain a certain kind of shared relationship. Even today we are a family company, so that we can continue to walk the path together.