Ecor anticipates turnover of 80 million Euros in 2007

Fabio Brescacin, Managing Director of the Italian whole food wholesaler Ecor, introduced his flourishing company. Mr Brescacin is anticipating a turnover of 80 million Euros by his wholesale business in 2007. He anticipates that specialist stores in Italy will see a growth in turnover of around 15 %, which contrasts sharply with the turnover in the conventional retail food trade where sales of organics are stagnating because of a lack of interest on the part of companies. “The conventional market is quiet and is leaving it to us to expand in the organic market,” he says with great satisfaction.

Picture: Fabio Brescacin

He explained that they had taken over the organic supermarket chain NaturaSi the previous year. On the retail side, the 60 organic supermarkets should record a turnover of around 60 million Euros. This year alone, a dozen new organic supermarkets in new locations have been added (all pictures: Rome), especially in the south of Italy in Palermo, Catania and Bari. On average, each NaturaSi-Market achieves an annual turnover of 1.2 million Euros. In 2006, the supermarket chain had growth in sales of more than 16 %. In the first six months of 2007, average growth was 21 % (compared with the same period the previous year). June 2007 can be considered a record month with growth in sales of more than 30 %.

Because of the company’s outstanding financial performance, NaturaSì was able to invest in further projects. New stores in Italy and a third store in Spain will help the company to even more success. In addition, the development and quality departments have been strengthened. NaturaSi also involved itself in social projects. In cooperation with l’Ong Cospe, a project was set up in Swaziland from 2003 to 2006, and one in Niger from 2006 to 2007.

NaturaSi will be present with a large store at the international fair Sana. The whole of pavilion 42 will be transformed into a supermarket covering 700 square meters, where more than 4,000 different organic products will be displayed. The average size of a NaturaSi store is between 250 and 300 square meters, which will make the store at Sana the largest in Italy. The visitors will profit not only from the large range of products on sale but also from a special discount of 10 % for the duration of the fair. Also, much information will be provided. Guided tours will take place twice a day, and childcare and tastings will be available too.

Ecor was the result of the amalgamation in 1989 of four regional wholesalers. Another 206 whole food stores have joined the Ecor marketing concept “B’io”, which helps these specialist shops to attract new customers.  In October, a week of promotion will take place at 100 “B’io” stores. Discounts of 30 % will be given on all fruit and vegetables. The consumption of fruit and vegetables has decreased in recent years, and this promotion aims to give consumers the opportunity to get to know the advantages of organic food and to increase their consumption at low cost.

The interest of Italian consumers in organic products keeps increasing. According to Coldiretti, the sale of organic food to private households has been growing by 10 % in the first months of this year. The growth rate of baby food is remarkable (+51 %), but also rice and pasta have increased by 26 %, according to Ismea’s data. Organic products are especially popular in Northern Italy, where 73 % of all sales take place. 18 % of organic products are bought in Central Italy and Sardinia, and 8 % are purchased in Southern Italy and in Sicily. Sales of organic products in Italy amount to about 1.5 billion Euros, equalling 2 % of all food sales in the country. The high demand for organics is also due to the fact that more school cafeterias offer organic products. Only 64 school cafeterias used organic products in 1996 and this number had increased to 647 by January 2006.

Sinab’s latest data revealed that the organic land area in Italy has increased by 7.5 % since 2005 and has had a positive effect on employment (+2.4 %).

Italy is the fourth most important producer in the world, and the most important one in the EU; one third of all organic companies in Europe and a quarter of the land managed organically in the EU are located in Italy. The organic land is used for fodder, meadows and pastures, and cereals. But also olives, vineyards and industrial crops played an important role. More than 220,000 cattle are kept in compliance with the organic guidelines for the production of meat and milk, more than 825,000 sheep and goats, 978,000 chicken, 31,000 pigs and 1,300 rabbits. Furthermore, there are 72,000 organic beehives.

The growth of the organic sector had a positive impact on the number of companies too. While there were about 41,000 companies working according to organic guidelines in 2004, this number grew to 50,000 in 2005, equalling a growth of 22 % in one year. This number increased again in 2006 to 51,000 companies. Most of the firms are working in the agricultural sector (about 45,000), followed by processors (about 4,700). At about 190, the number of organic companies importing and exporting is rather low.