Bonifiche Ferraresi stipulated an agreement with four Agricultural Consortia to invest in the CAI (Consorzi Agrari d’Italia), the first fully integrated Italian entity. The operation consolidates BF’s vocation as a strategic hub aimed at making the agri-food chain of the leading national group ever more virtuous and at generating value for all stakeholders. A strategic decision to protect the country’s food supremacy and biodiversity.

It was written in the BF Group’s 2018-2020 business plan: supporting the development and competitiveness of Italian agriculture. This is a priority objective that Bonifiche Ferraresi has been engaged in for some time to verticalize its agri-food supply chain and to give opportunities to stakeholders. The agreement signed on July 27 by BF with the Agricultural Consortia of Emilia, Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and Central South, to invest in CAI (Consorzi Agrari d’Italia), goes in this direction. It is the first fully integrated national entity that combines the vision, competence and ability to enhance products in the strategic supply chains of the first Italian agri-industrial group, with the territorial sales networks of products for farmers of the four consortia.

The transaction required a capital increase that the four consortia subscribed by conferring the business branches of the marketing, production and provision of services to CAI, while BF spa subscribed it in cash with 61 million euros. The result is an equity investment divided as follows: Bf Spa 36.79%; Agricultural Consortium of Emilia 31.10%; Consortium of the Tyrrhenian Sea 20.02%; Agricultural Consortium of the Adriatic 1.84%; Agricultural Consortium of the Central South 6.29%; Società Consortile Consorzi Agrari d’Italia S.c.p.A. (“SCCA”) 3,96%.

In practice, the operation of the CAI includes all strategic sectors, from technological innovation to supply chain contracts, from agri-energy to gardening, from the supply of technical means to the protection of seeds at risk of extinction. All together to give more value to the food supply chain.

The BF CEO, Federico Vecchioni, stated: “BF spa realizes another fundamental pillar of its industrial plan, consolidating its vocation as a strategic hub and proving capable of generating value for all its stakeholders from virtuous integration of the 100% Italian food chain from land to finished product”.