Coldiretti e Philip Morris Italy have signed an annual agreement to ensure continuity of investments in Italian tobacco. The association and the company communicate it in a note, specifying that the agreement also aims at fight drought, because it favors the diffusion of digital and precision agriculture systems for energy saving and reduction of up to 50% of the use of water.
The latest agreement is part of a multi-year supply chain agreement under which Philip Morris is committed to buy about 50% of the tobacco produced in Italy (about 20 thousand tons in 2022 alone). The operation is carried out thanks to the collaboration with about a thousand farms active mainly in Campania, Umbria, Veneto and Tuscany and allows for the creation of a medium-long term strategic planning, as well as guaranteeing the economic sustainability of the sector.
If we also consider related industries, Philip Morris Italia's investments in the Italian agricultural supply chain, amounting to around 100 million euros for 2022, will give work to around 28.700 Guests (of which up to 9.200 in Veneto, up to 9.500 in Umbria, up to 10.000 in Campania). L'economic impact estimated, however, this year amounts to 75 million euros in Veneto, 77 million in Umbria and 82 million in Campania.
The agreement reached represents "an important commitment for the relaunch of the sector in view of the implementation of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) - continues the note - and a first step to activate further initiatives aimed at making a chain of great importance from an economic and employment point of view for the territories involved".
Ettore Prandini, president of Coldiretti, underlines that "the crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine can only be tackled with the co-responsibility of the entire supply chain and the initiative taken in the context of the agreement signed in the tobacco sector represents an important signal for the whole agri-food system. These are important interventions, capable of coping with unsustainable cost increases for agricultural businesses, which risk compromising crops with an impact on the economy, the environment and work”.
Marco Hannappel, managing director and president of Philip Morris Italia, added: “We continue to support the Italian tobacco supply chain in a concrete and tangible way together with Coldiretti, increasingly convinced that an integrated supply chain logic is the best way forward, as we have been doing for over ten years".
Since the early XNUMXs, the collaboration agreements signed by Philip Morris Italia with the Ministry of Agriculture and Coldiretti have generated agricultural investments totaling over two billion euros for the benefit of the Italian tobacco chain.
