After visiting one of the Rodolfi Mansueto SpA factories in September, Sophie and Madeleine had the pleasure of interviewing Aldo Rodolfi in November on the 2024 crop, the future and sustainability.

First of all, can you tell us a little bit about yourself: how long have you had the company? Is it a family company? And just a little bit of history as an introduction?

Rodolfi has been a family company since the beginning. The company was set up in 1896. It's one of the oldest processors in Italy. At the beginning, it was a very very small company, not industrial, it was like a laboratory and not a factory. At the beginning of 20th century, my grandfather set up the industrial company here in Ozzano Taro and then the company stopped during the war, as it was damaged by the bombs. After the big war, we started the industrialisation of the company and the processing and we increased and improved every year to arrive where we are today. Regarding the north of Italy, it is one of the biggest companies in terms of tomato processing. What also characterizes our company is that at this moment it's one of the private companies completely owned by the family.

Especially in the last 10 years there were a lot of investors that invested in tomato processing companies. We are one of the biggest but the only one where the shares are completely within the Rodolfi family. I have other members of the family that own part of the shares. 

Sophie and myself came to the north of Italy in September for the OI Pomodoro press tour and we had the pleasure of visiting your company as well. As we arrived, there had been some rain the day before and as we left, there was a lot of rain as well. It was pouring actually when we took the road. So this harvest in the north of Italy was particularly difficult. What can you say about  it? What has been the impact on your business and how did you manage?

The impact was quite huge this year. We had a big problem during the transplantation period in spring, especially in April, May, and until the middle of June, so all the transplantation work was delayed. Then we had one and a half, two months of good weather conditions, so July and August, and September is always a very important month for us, for the quantity we need to harvest, but the crop was delayed by 15-20 days. Unfortunately as you saw when you came to Italy, September was terrible and October was even worse, because we had some problems in Emilia Romagna, with the river being very full and flooding, but also in the areas of Parma, Piacenza and Bologna. And we finished the crop in the middle of October.  So it continued until the middle of October with only a few lines working and only on some days because of the quantity of water, the fields were completely wet and it was not possible to harvest. Probably this year, in some tomato fields, remaining tomatoes will be destroyed.

So the impact is quite big because I think in the north of Italy, the reduction will be between 25% and 30% compared to the forecast. Our company is about 25% less than forecast. So we have to manage until the next crop. We will very likely be out of stock by June or July. We normally have customers' contracts that last until September or October.  Now we need to manage this problem of the lack of quantity by anticipating and supplying all the products by the end of June or July. We hope that the next crop next year will be earlier...

And buying tomato paste from the South of Italy is not an option for you?

No, because the South of Italy is not a producer of industrial products, there are only a few companies that produce those, they mainly produce finished products. From the South of Italy we buy some products that we commercialise, like every year, for example the peeled tomatoes. 

So what can we do? We have a big part of industrial products that we normally sell to customers, but also we repack during the year. We are not only a seasonal processor, but we repack a lot during the year, especially to make tomato sauces for example. 

We have different lines that are running all year long with repacked products and we have to better manage this quantity of raw material to arrive with all the products at the end of June next year, and not September or October as the other years.

So the weather conditions that you had in September, the rain, the floods, do you think that it is an effect of climate change or not or just bad luck? Do you find it worrying for the future of tomato processing in the north of Italy? What's your view on that?

I think it's a problem and we are quite worried about this kind of phenomenon. The difference here is the quantity of rain that we had. Last week in one day in Parma we had 120 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, and that is normally the amount of rain that comes in one month. So we are very worried about this kind of phenomena that happened in the last two-three years in different areas and did a lot of damage to the fields. 

Regarding climate change, if I look back at last year or even two-three years ago, it was very dry those last few years, and we were wondering how to manage the quantity of water. And also during this winter there were some people who forecast that for instance, in the future in the South of Italy, it would be difficult to grow tomatoes because of very hot temperatures and dry conditions. And the north of Italy was better. But this year it was completely the opposite. We are pushing our local politicians to create artificial lakes in the mountains to avoid lack of water in dry period.

It's difficult to say that it's climate change, because then all the years would be like this year. Again if I go back a few years, it was completely the opposite situation. This year, what is very different from the past, and it's not the first year that we have a very rainy spring and a delayed summer, but normally when it's like that then we have very good weather conditions in September and October; so what's different is that this year we had in the same year a very rainy spring and rain in September and October. What we fear it's this type of phenomenon that is very heavy when it happens; that is different from the past. It's not the first time that we have to manage too much rain or serious heat. 

So is there any action that you or the farmers can take or is it wait and see what happens next year?  

Everybody can do their bit to avoid or at least reduce the impact of climate change. With the farmers we are busy with a sustainability program in the fields but also in the factories, so we are investing in recycling energy using less water. We also have a sustainability program for Rodolfi that has different aspects: so starting from the suppliers, the farmers to the way of transporting the products, In Europe for instance in Germany we are using the train to transport instead of the truck, to reduce CO2 emissions. We are focusing on how to be more sustainable. I hope this will help us to reduce climate change impacts. 

Well everybody should do what they can and you are doing it and indeed we talked about sustainability when we visited with the OI Pomodoro. When we visited the fields I remember clearly that it was generally less than 60 kilometers between the fields and the factory. How is it for Rodolfi, how many kilometers on average?

 We have three different plants in the Parma area. We think that our distance from the farmers to the factories is less than 60km, it's more like 40. We have in some specific factories farmers that come directly with the tractor so for us the transport is still very important in order to avoid the CO2 but also for the quality of the product. The quicker it arrives and the quicker it's processed. 

But also the farmers become very big and so they have the necessity to transport the tomato by truck and not by tractor. I think we are one of the North Italian companies that receive big quantities from fields that are very close and the farmers that arrive in the factory directly with the tractors from the fields. Also because we have three different plants in three different areas with many tomato growers around. 

You also mentioned, in the sustainability field, that you were recycling water?

Yes, we are pushing farmers to use drip irrigation, already for 20 years or more and we have done a big investment in the cleaning of water in the factory, and we recycle 70% of the water that we use in the factory. 

So you do your bit for the planet to be as sustainable as possible ...  

We are also investing in solar energy, with photovoltaic panels. The first investment was done in 2011 ( 1000 KW) , and this year we invested in new solar panels (+500 KW)  to cover the roof of the warehouse and the building. We think we are going to invest again, not every year, but we have a plan for the next five years to increase our electricity production.

And do you produce enough electricity to be independent for your consumption or not yet ?

During the crop, we are not independent, we produce 25% of our internal production. During the rest of the year, we are independent, as there are only a few lines running instead of all of them. But during the crop we would need to produce a lot more to be independent.  

We have big evaporators running, so we have a big consumption of steam. When we replace the evaporator, and we have just replaced one in 2022, then we will replace the steam by the electricity produced internally. It's a big investment but it's planned for the future.

So at the moment the steam is produced by gas? Yes by methane gas.

Let's talk about the global production. What do you think about the increase this year? The last number is about 45.7 million tonnes, so 1.2 million tonnes more than last year but by far the record as we never had that level... And we are not sure about the number for China.

So we will see in November/December what the exact number for China is...

So what do you think of this big increase and also what is the potential consequence on your business? How is that affecting your business? 

I think this big production will have an impact worldwide on consumption and customers. Regarding our business, we have always focused on quality and we have customers such as the big retail chains that also focus on quality, sustainability and ethical production. 

However I can't say that this big production won't have an impact on our business.

But I remember that we had a similar situation 10 or 20 years ago, when China had increased their production a lot. Not at the level of this year though. But in the end they didn't find how to sell their product at a good price so they finally reduced the production. 

This year and last year especially with the increased price, as our business is mainly focused on finished products, high quality products and high quality markets, I think that the real Italian products and the real quality products will continue to find an interest on the market. 

There are other countries or their markets that are not able to pay that price so for them it will be difficult to sell them Italian products 

Okay so you will be relatively protected by selecting a high quality and high product range? 

Yes when the gap between the cheaper products and the high quality products becomes very big, it's more difficult to continue growing the real Italian high quality products We know that it will be more difficult but we think we have to manage this kind of problem As we have done in the past we hope that customers that are looking for quality, sustainability, traceability, ethical production etc are going to continue doing so.

So you don't see pressure yet from distributors or HoReCa to reduce prices? 

Well we manage this kind of problems every day... As you know this year we were expecting a good crop and a big crop, especially in the north of Italy, so we are discussing with buyers every day because they say they want to pay less and the production is very big. We have more problems in the industrial channel, where we sell tomato paste. When the ingredient, the origin and the quality are less important, the buyer can easily buy products from China or from other regions at cheaper price.

Let's talk about markets now. So you're selling mostly to Europe and 49% to Italy. Do you have any plans to expand and to export to other countries, to the United States for example?

49% is the export share of Rodolfi but it's not only to Europe. In Europe our biggest market is Germany, Germany is very important for a lot of tomato processors because there is a big consumption of tomato products in this country. We have historical customers in Germany, both for retail and for the industry. But we have grown, especially in the last 10 years, also in the north European markets, And we have grown a lot in North America. It's the third largest market after Germany, both US and Canada. But we export and we have historical customers also in Japan, in Australia, in countries where we can sell Italian products.  For example in some parts of Asia and in some parts of Africa it's more difficult for us to sell at a high price. We can grow by exporting our products both to Europe, especially in the East where our sales are increasing, and to North America where we started 15 years ago to supply the real Italian tomato.

And what about the split between retail and food service?

We are quite flexible. For example during the pandemic period, we didn't have any impact on our business because we have three types of channels: Industrial (B2B), Retail (with our brand and private labels) and also Food Service. So we are flexible for production and for selling, we can adapt to produce more for the channel that is asking for more, we can change the proportion of those channels. And this way of production, especially after the pandemic when the food service channel had to decrease by 50% in one year, so for us these three different channels give us the possibility to adjust our production and sales to our different channels. This flexibility is really a big advantage for us. 

So in Europe you said Germany is the first export market and then, where else do you export in Europe?

We export also to France and to the UK but the biggest is Germany.

Do you sell the same products to those different countries?

No. 

So what are the differences between products in Germany and in France for instance?

In Germany we are doing a lot of private labels. We mainly sell industrial products for the industry of sauces, frozen pizzas, ready meals etc. 

In France we mainly sell products for retail and food service.

So it's all different products in different packaging. For example in Germany they use triple tomato paste. In the USA and other countries they use double tomato paste. We are able to produce and follow the request of each market. 

What do you see as the next big challenges for Rodolfi in the next few years?

The challenge for us is to increase our market share for our Rodolfi brand. At this moment we are busy rebranding our products. Until last year we had different brands because of our history  and our different channels.So we had four brands and the goal for the future in Italy but also for the other markets is to have only one brand which is Rodolfi and to propose our products with this (new) brand name which is the name of the family. So since last year we have been busy with the rationalisation of our 4 brands. So we will change our presentation of the products.

Yes I remember when we visited you in September that they were showing us the new packaging. But moving from 4 brands to only one it's a big challenge indeed. And there was this Ortolina brand. 

Yes, it's the retail brand for the Italian market. 

It's really well known as a brand and people want Ortolina so how are you going to move from Ortolina to Rodolfi?

Because Ortolina was born as a tube in ready sauces. And then, 20 years ago, we used the brand Ortolina also for tomato paste, passata, crushed tomatoes, for other kinds of products and the idea is to maintain the Ortolina brand only for the original tomato paste with vegetables. And to move to the Rodolfi brand for the other tomato categories. We will do that also outside of Italy, where we are already starting with some retail chains selling our Rodolfi brand with good results. So with those two brands we have the opportunity to increase our market share and our customer base. And in some parts of the world, we are currently doing private labels but we also want to grow with our own brand. 

What would you say defines a good product nowadays, if you compare it to maybe 30 years ago, what are the requirements for a good product?

If I come back 20-30 years ago, I think the quality of tomato products has improved a lot, the way of processing has improved, the sterilisation, the pasteurisation, the selection of the products has improved, so now the products are safer than they were in the past.

Today a good product is a tasty product, with good colour. You have to produce a product the right way, and that also takes into consideration the cultivation, the processing, the fact that it's made in a sustainable way, in an ethical way and with traceability of the product etc. 

The customer doesn't only want quality, a good product but they also want to know how the product is made, where it is made, where it comes from, how it is made and that it's been made in a fair way. So it guarantees the quality but also the respect of the people, of the soil, the environment, all those things that the customers ask now but didn't ask in the past.

So we have a big job in explaining how it is made, how the tubes and the jars of tomato sauce and passata are made. We are in Italy and you know that in Italy tomato products are really important. If I visit a family in Milan or Rome, and I explain how the tomatoes are grown, processed, packed, actually the people don't know that.

So there's a lot of education to be done, education of the customers...

Yes there is a lot to explain to the customers because starting from the fields and about the way of processing, a lot of people don't know how we make tomato products. 

Some people still think it's made in greenhouses, in China, from GMOs...

Sometimes, when they talk about tomatoes on the television, they even put a video of black people harvesting tomatoes by hand, but it's not the reality, especially in Italy where we have had mechanical harvesters already for 30 years. 

I think we have to communicate globally as an industry, because everywhere people have the wrong idea about the industry.

For 10 or 15 years, we have always had a day in September, when we open the factory to visitors in the Parma province. When the people come and they see how we wash tomatoes, the processing lines, the selection of the tomatoes, they say "oh I didn't expect that it was working like this" so yes we have a lot of communication to do. Because unfortunately, tomatoes are used for bad communication. And this happens in Italy, where people know more about tomatoes... If I think about Germany, France, and the UK, we have to do a lot, even more there. 

Let's talk about organic products. I think it's about 10% of your production. Do you think it will grow or do you think it will stay at that level? What's your view on organic, do you think people will want more or not?

It depends on the period, because last year and two years ago, because of the increase in price, the demand for organic products was stable or even decreasing a bit. For our company, it's about 10% but it's stable because the organic fields in the north of Italy don't represent much surface. So this year, but also last year, the organic production was reduced in the forecast. I think the demand is quite stable. The production in some areas was reduced as well, because the farmers needed to make a choice between conventional and organic. And it's not a small choice to convert the fields to organic production. I think the demand for organic products is quite stable in Europe, I don't see a big change happening. Even if I compare the two products, conventional and organic, they are both produced with very rigid controls, starting from the field, so the difference is not so big, also in terms of the quantity of added products that you can find in the finished product. So sometimes we even have difficulties finding the raw material, especially with the kind of weather conditions we just had. And organic production is even more difficult than conventional production. But I don't think organic production will grow much more in the future. Especially in the Italian and European markets.

About technology, what do you think could be the next development, maybe a new tomato product or a new way of making products? Are you going to make technical changes in the factory? For instance you mentioned earlier that you were going to move from gas to electricity for steam production. Do you see any big thing happening or do you have any plans?

Regarding the way of processing, I don't see big differences in the future. It also depends on research and development of course. A big challenge for us is to move the steam to electricity and to invest in ways of production that have less impact on the CO2 and the environment. This is what I see in the future for our industry.

And do you think that we'll see new tomato products? 

Maybe at some point, but right now I don't see any new product because you know, there are two-three categories, and then the products are very similar. We can change the way of presenting the product, with or without pieces, and then we can change the Brix of the product. Between a passata with a Brix of eight and a tomato paste with a Brix of 36, in between you can do everything. But it's not easy to come up with a really new product.

Is there anything you want to add?

We are one of the oldest producers of tomato sauces in Italy. Because we started in 1960 to produce tomato sauces. We process not only tomatoes but also other kinds of vegetables, like right now we are processing a small crop of pumpkins, and in June and July we process basil for the pesto sauces. We work with farmers that grow tomatoes but also basil, and basil is growing a lot in order to produce the pesto sauces. This is a market that is growing a lot. 

Regarding the industrial channel, we are the only tomato processor that produces dry tomato products. Because we produce tomato flakes, tomato powder. We have different lines so it's not only jars, cans and tubes but also dried products. Dried products are mainly sold to the industry that uses them as ingredients, mainly for export markets.