"There is one province in Italy that produces 80 to 90 per cent of the country's cherry tomatoes", Marco Arestia, Plant Director and Agromanager at Agromonte, tells us on the occasion of Tuttofood 2026, the international food trade fair held at the Fiera di Milano from 11 to 14 May. We are talking about the province of Ragusa, in southern Sicily, where the sun is among the most generous in Italy and where a strong production tradition quickly evolved into a highly concentrated industrial system.

It is in this territory that Agromonte was born — a family business that processes and sells cherry tomato preserves, sourced from farms directly managed by the company or located close to its processing plant. This is a choice with immediate, measurable effects: no long-distance logistics and less road transport for the tomatoes. A choice that makes Ragusa's cherry tomatoes even more competitive on shelves crowded with low-cost alternatives from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.

Sun and water: two resources to be managed

With 6,000 square metres of photovoltaic panels already installed and a further 15,000 nearing completion, Agromonte is aiming for total energy self-sufficiency by 2026. The province of Ragusa is, after all, tenth in Italy for sun exposure and annual sunny days, and making the most of this asset means responding rationally to rising energy costs. Water availability in the area, however, is far less generous: in 2024, 100 per cent of its population was exposed to drought conditions and thirty-nine municipalities were forced to ration water supplies. Agromonte, however, knows the problem well and has learned to recycle 80 per cent of the water used in its plant. "We use biological treatment systems, in which certain bacteria purify the water so that it can be recovered, since the water is not contaminated by chemical agents. So in the tomato washing process we reuse the water, and the savings are significant," Arestia explains.

In the fields, water saving is built on the same logic of precision. "Over the years I have personally studied new irrigation methods," Arestia confides in us, "such as drip irrigation lines — pipes with micro-holes through which you can choose exactly how much water is needed relative to the hectarage of tomatoes you have. This way, you know how much water is required for every metre of land, and you can easily work it out whether your tomato plants are spaced 30 to 40 centimetres apart or a metre apart. Another interesting method concerns the delivery of water. We open the solenoid valves by radio rather than by wire," Arestia explains, "so if I need to give, say, ten litres of water per metre to the plants each day, by opening the solenoid valves I can deliver that amount split across several intervals throughout the day, allowing the plant to absorb the water gradually. If I provide it all at once, the water just runs off. If I administer it little by little, in three or four doses, I genuinely save a great deal of water."

For Agromonte, waste is precious

Every tomato processing operation generates (in addition to water) various types of waste, such as skins and seeds. So why not give them a new life? Agromonte's idea was to carry the grainy texture of the tomato onto the bottles themselves, giving consumers a tactile experience. From this came the Etichetta della Terra project — a limited-edition label made using the red pigment extracted from tomato skin waste: a waste stream becomes a raw material for a component of the finished product, closing a loop that would otherwise remain open.

Finally, rising agricultural raw material costs — fertilisers chief among them — have pushed Agromonte to revive an ancient practice reinterpreted through a contemporary productive lens: green manuring. Before tomato plants are transplanted, the soil is sown with legumes which, once cut and turned into the ground, release organic nitrogen into the soil, reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers. Fewer chemical inputs, more organic matter. An agronomic investment that lowers production costs without compromising yields.