Over a thousand people every day and every night animate this
large structure, which communicates with the whole world from
the city of Bologna. But to tell the story and the vision of CAAB - a modern
commercial logistics platform, but also a centre of advanced services for the
agri-food sector - it is necessary to involve the production realities, the
international partners, as well as the active and aware citizens. Because doing
business is a challenge that concerns everyone, no one excluded. Giampaolo
Colletti interviews Marco Marcatili, Chairman of CAAB, and Alessandro Bonfiglioli, General Manager of CAAB, for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
There
are businesses that never stop and that continue day and night in a succession
of endless stories. Companies that have strong local roots, but which then
connect to every corner of the world. Companies that bet on sustainability,
digitisation, the ability to work as a team, even with different teams. All of
this can be found in CAAB, an acronym that means Centro Agro Alimentare di
Bologna, i.e. Bologna Agri-food Centre. It is a logistical and commercial
structure created and managed in the name of innovation. CAAB manages the fruit
and vegetable market – one of the largest distribution structures in Italy – as
well as warehouses for refrigerated and frozen products, covered logistics
platforms, offices and support structures. A city within a city, which is awake
twenty-four hours a day. A story among stories, in fact.
«CAAB
is already today a place of connection between agriculture, commerce,
logistics, and energy production. The complexity is generated by this encounter.
Our strength lies in the ability to manage complex assets, coordinate and
promote synergies between differences, generate value and distribute it in many
directions. CAAB is an ecosystem because it is based on highly collaborative
practices and involves many actors», explains Marco Marcatili, Chairman of CAAB.
CAAB
proposes itself not only as a modern commercial logistics platform, but also as
an advanced service centre for the agri-food sector. «Due to the strategic
position, the functionality of the structures, the presence of important
entrepreneurial realities, as well as the high quality level of the market
services and the products marketed, CAAB represents one of the most significant
points of reference in Italy and Europe in the distribution circuits regarding
the agri-food sector», says Alessandro Bonfiglioli, General Manager of CAAB.
The history. The numbers tell
of a connected ecosystem: today CAAB is spread over 54,000 square metres of covered
surfaces with as much as 20,000 square metres of refrigerated areas. About a
thousand employees work every day with 15 wholesale companies, a cooperative
consortium made up of 135 farms, 50 companies that market directly and two
organisations of producers. Here, 240,000 tons of fruit and vegetables of 200
different species are handled every year. And, continuing, an area dedicated to
fish products, six horticultural operators, six logistics and porterage
structures, 2,000 customers distributed in 80 foreign countries as product
suppliers and over 100,000 chemical analyses carried out every year as part of
the hygienic-sanitary monitoring plan. The value of the production generated is around 350 million euros a year. Connecting people
and places. After all, this is CAAB's ambition. As many as 81% of the products
that pass through here come from the area and therefore from the work of local
farmers.
«The
relationship with the territory is fundamental for us - Marcatili specifies -
and we intend to strengthen our presence in Bologna, both at the metropolitan
level, reducing distances and involving the territory in all its extension, and
at the city level. We would like CAAB to be increasingly perceived as a place
of identity in the city. We imagine a cultural operation that reaches people».
CAAB
is engaged in numerous projects for local agriculture, but above all in
sustainable distribution systems for the creation of smart cities. «Thus, we
will establish the first Italian energy community based on sustainable food
distribution systems», explains Bonfiglioli. What has been created is a
citadel of food services and more. Something unique in Italy and in the world. «Of
course, there are wholesale centres bigger than us like Paris, but also Rome
and Milan. But our idea is that of an ecosystem interconnected
with scientific and technical components and micro-bacteriological
analyses. The future is made up of an expanded glocal ecosystem with a dialogue
that reaches the final consumer», says Bonfiglioli.
«And
it is precisely with the citizens and consumers that we would like to
strengthen the dialogue, to promote a "good and fair", safe and
transparent CAAB product», resumes Chairman Marcatili, who then dwells on the
projects that concern the area of competences and of training. «CAAB's
efficiency is not only in its hard infrastructure. We strongly believe in the
intangible, human capital, which is rooted in the deep knowledge of the sector.
CAAB is a place of advanced knowledge, a privileged observatory on the agri-food
world and we will launch a project to "feed skills". Today it is
possible to enhance these dimensions on the market, which increasingly requires
the sharing of valuable knowledge and experience.»
Meanwhile, the
new area is made up of a single large tunnel, over 400
metres long, which is equipped with a centralised external platform with the
simultaneous loading and unloading capacity of 30 heavy vehicles.
Think big and together.
Today
CAAB is potentially self-sufficient in terms of energy thanks to its solar roof
system, which is the largest in Europe: thanks to the accumulation system, the
plant satisfies almost 80% of its annual consumption. «We were pioneers, with the
first phase already connected in 2012. The latest will cover parking lots with
photovoltaic canopies and will bring the total power to over 20 megawatts. We
are also building a cogeneration and biogas system to produce energy at
nightime»,
continues Bonfiglioli.
In
recent years CAAB has participated in the GECO project, Green Energy Community,
which aims to reduce the distances between production and consumption,
involving local residents, commercial activities and local businesses to
increase the generation and self-consumption of renewable energy in the areas
of Pilastro and Roveri, within which there is also the Agri-food Centre of
Bologna. Thanks to this project, CAAB intends to create an Energy Community
with the market operators, through the expansion of the current photovoltaic
park and the sharing of energy with companies. «The identity of CAAB is in strong evolution, it
changes with the changing of the times and the context. In recent weeks we have
been awarded a 10 million euro PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza -
Recovery Plan) project, which will make CAAB even more advanced and attractive
over the next two years. We will undertake to guide the evolution while keeping
the fundamental values firm: product quality, service efficiency, centrality of
human work, attention to environmental sustainability and waste reduction. And
it is from this perspective that we would like to build a site protocol, in
dialogue with the institutions and actors of the territorial system, that
outlines a clear direction for the coming years», concludes Marcatili. Thinking
big today means doing it sustainably. To design a better future together.
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
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