From white beet sugar to crystalline sugar extracted from grape must, up to “multipurpose” honey, the step in the galaxy of food is not short. But the Maccaferri industrial group, with Sadam and the subsidiaries Naturalia Ingredients and Apicoltura Piana is now accelerating on the market for natural sweetening as an alternative to sugar. And this with a project to relaunch the "Piana Miele" brand, which started in October in some primary chains of large-scale retail chains, reinforcing a policy of production diversification and all-round innovation that the Bologna-based group has always conducted through its holding control Seci and six subholdings active in as many strategic fields: in addition to food and agro-industry, environmental and mechanical engineering, construction, real estate, energy and tobacco.
In 2017 Sadam, through the subsidiary Naturalia Ingredients, entered with a minority stake in Apicoltura Piana, a company based in Castel San Pietro (Bologna), which produces and markets sugars extracted from fruit with natural processes. The company, founded by Gian Pietro Piana who in 1903 left the University of Milan to start a bee farm with his son Gaetano (queen bees of the Ligustica breed), currently processes about 4 thousand tons of honey a year, of which 2.400 marketed in the large-scale distribution, for a value of over 20 million euros, equal to about one fifth of the Italian market.
Last July, Naturalia Ingredients became the majority shareholder by acquiring a further 40% of Apicoltura Piana from the controlling company, FlaRa Holding, and appointing Massimo Maccaferri as president. And in a few days it will start with a national relaunch plan that will leverage the networks of important distribution brands, including Coop and Esselunga.
“In reality, we have already been working together on the project with FlaRa Holding for about a year - explains Giulia Pierini, product manager of Naturalia Ingredients - Now the first step is to intervene on the branded product to remove it from a condition of almost anonymity in which it had remained until now on the shelves. The goal is to enter the large-scale distribution with a honey to be known not only as a sweetener, but to be used for different purposes, in the kitchen and in pastry shops. And it is no coincidence that we have already started partnerships with chefs and barmen to find alternative solutions. By October, we will present new packaging and product packaging that is more appealing to consumers".
A marketing operation to accelerate the market, given that the production of honey in Italy in the last two or three years has dropped by up to 70%, mainly due to drought and bee diseases, forcing many companies in the sector to source abroad.
Not to mention the value of these alternative natural sweeteners, both to imported cane sugar and to the white sugar extracted from beets. A crop now reduced to a minimum in Italy, with just over 30 thousand hectares of sown area and two active sugar refineries, after the drastic community reform launched in 2006 which in a few years practically dismantled the network of sugar plants in exchange for substantial incentives to disposal) and world sugar prices in further decline which in Italy undermine the competitiveness of what little remains of the farmers-processing industry supply chain.
