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Supply chain

 

A product guaranteed
throughout the supply chain


This is not a slogan, but a commitment and a guarantee: because we know everything about our tomato.

We manage the entire production cycle internally, from the cultivation, which is entrusted to the farmers, our members, to the processing, which takes place in our production plants, allowing us offer partners and consumers a finished product with controlled and traceable quality right from its sowing.

The entire production process complies with the Integrated Production Regulations of the Emilia - Romagna Region, as a further guarantee of quality you can rely on.

The Agronomic Management

The Agronomic Management of Casalasco oversees the entire production chain in order to support the work of farmers and obtain high quality standards.

  • Transplantation, fertilisation and defence programs, collective purchasing and assistance to farmers in the nursery and in the field

  • Promotion of varietal diversification and the diffusion of good agricultural practices

  • Management of the harvesting and transfer campaign

  • Product analysis before and after harvesting

  • Ensuring members' agricultural production
    at conditions better than the market

From the field…

The seeds

Casalasco selects the different tomato varieties working alongside seed companies to select the best varieties in terms of their productivity, plant health, sugar content, colour and consistency.

The land

We preserve the soil fertility, aware that the earth is our primary resource. The constant training and technical assistance to our farmers and the research at our Casalasco Agricola aim to keep our production campaigns and ecosystems intact, keeping future generations in mind. This includes the constant search for more effective and sustainable cultivation techniques.

Our farmers

Casalasco farmers have always been the key players in the supply chain: they produce 100% of the tomatoes processed by Casalasco, guaranteeing stability and continuity to the entire supply chain.

Our producers are required to respect:

  • the supply chain agreement, which commits the farm to operate in compliance with the required standards;
  • the provision commitment, which binds the direct member and member cooperatives to cultivate the agreed hectares with tomatoes and to supply all the product to Casalasco, which guarantees its collection;
  • the code of conduct for members, which commits companies to respecting human and workers rights and the rules relating to work in agriculture;
  • the provision disciplinary, which defines the quality parameters required for the product and the evaluation criteria.

... at the plant

Collection and provision

The tomato campaign is the culminating moment in the agricultural working year, and takes place with careful planning by the Agronomic Management. Effective organisation of the campaign is vital to ensure that the tomato berry harvest takes place promptly and quickly.

Timing is everything: to be healthy and tasty, the tomato must not be picked before or after its peak of ripeness.

It is also necessary for the harvested tomatoes to reach the processing plant in the shortest possible time; ripe tomatoes are delicate, and they can no longer be usable 24 hours after harvesting. 

This is why having our processing plants at an average distance of 50 km away from the fields has a strategic value: our tomatoes are harvested and processed within a few hours, guaranteeing maximum freshness, taste and health.

Processing

Just a few steps separate the fresh tomato from the packaged product; for this very reason, these stages are of the utmost importance:

  • The product delivered from the field is checked to ensure its quality.
  • The tomatoes are washed and subjected to further selection, to remove those which are damaged or not fully ripe.
  • To produce the pulp, the tomatoes are simply cold-peeled and the fresh is removed, getting rid of their seeds.
  • For the passata, the tomatoes are chopped up to a finer consistency and blanched for a short time at a very high temperature, before bottling them with a touch of salt.

 

 

Packaging

The last step in the process is packaging the product. Thanks to our 70 packaging lines, we can rely on a wide range of options and tailor-made solutions for our brands as well as for our co-manufacturer and private label partners.

For our packaging, we choose solutions that combine maximum performance with environmental sustainability and easy recycling.

Work first

At every stage of the supply chain, the protection of workers is given priority; also and especially at harvest time, when the need for manpower grows exponentially and seasonal workers are used.

Quality controls

Our products are checked along the entire production chain, with cross-analysis of soil, seeds and genetics, and with a series of random checks throughout the processing phase.



These checks are entrusted both to the internal laboratories in each plant and to external laboratories. Over time, Casalasco has invested in developing a system of state-of-the-art laboratories which carry out process, environmental and finished product analyses: we now have a network of three central laboratories and two line laboratories which carry out chemical-physical analyses and three laboratories, one for each production site, for microbiological analyses, for a total of 8 internal laboratories.

 

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