How beautiful Bologna is, only one year later. And with the city of the two towers, "learned and fat", its largest agri-food park in the world – Fig Eataly World – inaugurated on 15 November 2017. A structure that in the ten hectares of exhibition area, eight of which are covered, in 12 months recorded the presence of 2,8 million visitors from all over the world, generating a total turnover of 50 million. An initial objective in line with the business plan that the creators of the project, including Prelios Sgr, Centro agroalimentare di Bologna (Caab), Coop Alleanza 3.0 and Coop Reno, have launched with an initial investment of 140 million and the common objective of “representing Italian food from the field to the fork”.
For the first birthday of Italian peasant factory (Fico is the acronym created by the patron of Eataly, Oscar Farinetti) the organizers have prepared a week of events (until Sunday 18 November) officially opened today with a meeting on the Mediterranean diet. This coincides with the launch of the third edition of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the world (19-25 November) organized by the Italian Government. Today's appointment virtually united Bologna with Rome, Beijing and New York, in the presence of Vincenzo De Luca, director general for the promotion of the country system, Ettore Francesco Sequi, ambassador of Italy in the People's Republic of China, Phil Kafarakis and Daniel W Dowe, respectively president and chairman of the Specialty Food Association, the body that promotes Fancy Food in the Big Apple.
According to the latest Nomisma surveys, around 600 people stayed overnight in the metropolitan city of Bologna for at least one night in the last year. And of these, around 170 (8% of the total) stopped to specifically visit this citadel of Made in Italy food. The research company estimates with a direct induced, only for the city of Bologna, of over 23 million.
The numbers of environmental and social sustainability are also relevant. They contributed to the creation of the park 150 companies, with a hundred of excellences from North to South Italy which in one year have already produced 900 jobs: 3 thousand with related industries, above all young people and with a high percentage of women. In the 100 thousand square meters of the dedicated area, the result of the conversion of the Caab without soil consumption, 3 million kWh of "clean" energy were used thanks to a photovoltaic system installed on the roof of the structure. And 10 tons of unsold food have been donated to associations that take care of needy and destitute people.
The Park also has a scientific and cultural soul which relies on the Fico Foundation, chaired by the economist Andrea Segrè. Which on November 16 will bring the Park "out of town" in Naples with a "Mediterranean Lecture" to sanction the cultural value and the educational mission of the project.
"Food education becomes a pole of knowledge for European schools“, commented Paolo De Castro, president of the scientific committee of Fico and first vice president of the Agriculture commission of the EU Parliament, on the sidelines of the work of the Assembly in Strasbourg.
“Our reality is alive and authentic – he said Tiziana Primori, CEO of Fico Eataly World – and is studied internationally. It is becoming a platform to bring our products and the great skills of our agri-food companies to the world". Among the objectives, added Primori, "increase the share of foreign presences from the current 20 to 30%".
Satisfied Andrea Cornetti, general manager of Prelios gr, which established and manages the Pai Fund (Italian agri-food parks), which currently includes Fico and Caab, but which will soon also involve a new 4-star superior hotel (already signed a management agreement with StarHotels) which will be built by 2019 in the area adjacent to the Park. The Pai Fund (120 million invested by 26 Italian institutional investors) is currently 38% owned by a dozen social security funds, including Enpam, Cassa forense, Enpaia and Epap, approximately 30% by Caab and 29% by Co-op Alliance. “Our satisfaction – said Cornetti – goes beyond the purely economic results: the realization of this complex operation, carried out by Prelios Sgr with the support of the various stakeholders, has in fact allowed the achievement of extremely important qualitative objectives”. Among these, the international recognition Mipim Award 2018, "Oscar" of the real estate sector.
