ASSICA INCREASINGLY COMMITTED TO SUSTAINABILITY
Recently, the first ‘Sustainability Programme’, realised by the Association in tandem with IVSI (Istituto Valorizzazione Salumi Italiani), was presented at the ASSICA 2022 Annual Meeting.
This programme signifies a concrete cultural change of step that sees sustainability as a business opportunity and not as a burden, as a necessity to remain competitive on the market.
The evolution of this approach translates into considering sustainability as one of the factors, of the values, placed at the centre of the company strategy of the present and the future. Hence precisely the need for the Sustainability Programme, a publication that responds to the vision of ASSICA, which is also involved in an ambitious project, ‘Trust Your Taste, CHOOSE EUROPEAN QUALITY’, co-financed by the European Union, which has among its objectives precisely the promotion of the production culture of pork and cured meats, dedicating ample space to the values that inspire it: quality, food safety and sustainability.
“Promoting the sector, today and in the future, also translates into a commitment to incentivise and offer support to companies in sustainable development. The mission of ASSICA and IVSI, therefore, is broadened and enriched with a new objective: to raise the environmental, economic and social sustainability profile of companies in the sector. It is from this vision that the first edition of the Sustainability Programme draws its vigour and substance,” specifies ASSICA President, Ruggero Lenti, who also adds that: ‘to turn these commitments into tangible results, however, it is essential that the entire supply chain moves in the same direction. Institutions, both national and international, undoubtedly have a decisive role to play here. The supply chain is indeed the protagonist, but what we need to achieve is a real ‘ecosystem’ of cooperation. Therefore, the most important thing is to realise that the livestock supply chain is part of the solution and that the sustainability of the sector can be generated internally, taking advantage of its ability to make the natural propensity to circularity of production that characterises it economically viable.”