PARCO PRODUCE Partners

In order to become members of our consortium, our partners have share the following regulation:

• Each supplier/farm/producer/transformer must ensure compliance with the regulation in force about food safety, particularly about labelling, traceability, organic certification and tax obligations.
• Supplies will have an expiry date of at least 6 months from the delivery date for perishable products, one year for honey, olive oil, preserves and so on. When close to the expiry date, products must be withdrawn and replaced with fresh ones.
• Transparent pricing -both wholesale and retail. Prices applied by the Consortium must be the same as those applied by the suppliers in any context.
• In order to apply the same prices, partners will grant 20% reduction to the Consortium, which will provide communication, information, promotion and distribution (producers will not be charged with these costs).
• Producers will carry out dicrect sale to the consumer, whereas the Consortium will carry out relationships woth restaurants, specialized shops, purchasing groups. Producers will create a specific corner at their premises, where they will display the products of all consortium members, with no rise in costs nor in administrative requirements (as provided by the regulation on farms/agricultural holdings).
• Collective partecipation to exibitions: costs will be equally shared and will be deduced from the revenues of the exibition. The exact number of staff members taking part in a sheduled event must be communicated, including short informational meetings to make the consortium products known. The event schedule will be communicated in advance, with proper time margins for partners to chose the preferred events and to plan their participation (which will be a binding commitment, once communicated).
• Within Abruzzi, deliveries will be carried out on a weekly schedule by the Consortium (vehicles, staff, electronic motorway toll-charge system). Deliveries outside Abruzzi will be carried out by a carrier in agreement with the Consortium. The Consortium will be in charge with all delivery costs, including packaging and labour. At the end of the month, costs will be allocated according to each partner’s revenue.
• By November, each producer will check his/her price list, which shall keep unchanged for the whole year, except for exceptional cases or seasonal quotations. Particular prices due to seasonal proceedings will have to be communicated as prompt as possible by the suppliers.
• The Consortium commits to order new supplies in considerable advance. However the delivery shall be carried out within a week after the order.
• A new product can be inserted at any moment both in the catalogue and the delivery list. On the website, the new product will be inserted within the least technical time required to up-date the website).

If you want to be part of the PARCO PRODUCE consortium contact us

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From the Working Table “RES Nazionale – Gruppo di lavoro Distribuzione Solidale”
Since 2014, the Consortium has taken part in “Censimento delle iniziative di Piccola Distribuzione Organizzata” (Census of the enterprises for Organized Small-scale Distribution)

The National Network for Social Economy has decided to make a survey of the initiatives concerning organized small-scale distribution on the Italian territory, according to the concept of Social Economy -i.e. direct relationships between consumers and producers on the ground of responsible personal behaviours aimed at the protection of local society and environment.

We have been operating for 21 years in respect of the principles of social economy. Social principles in our case mainly means to solve the heavy problems suffered by small producers of our area, dispersed over a mountain territory with very low density of population and very high individual distribution costs. A collective organization of the offer has allowed us:

1. to cut down the costs of distribution (our headquarters receives the orders, manages warehouse and packaging procedures, carries out deliveries and complaints, with two workers on a full-time range performing additional tasks of production and accounting);
2. to arrange an offer of diverse products, still ensuring a short production chain (among personally acquainted producers);
3. to boost the growth of all farms and companies in the production chain (hygiene and safety procedures, labelling, traceability, staff training and updating);
4. to boost business diversification and multifunctionality (farm holidays, didactic farms, workshops and so on);
5. to boost barter at “source price” (i.e. cost of production) among our members, cutting down costs for services (which are paid in kind);
6. 20% revenue is granted to pay the operating expenses. Each producer sell his/her products for the same price as those applied by the Consortium (both wholesale and in retail). There shall be no markup. As collective organization allows cost reduction for the single producers, 20% on wholesale prices is granted for the Consortium.

BARATTO Social Purchasing Group

«Hold the hand that feeds you. As soon as you do it, trust becomes again a matter of human realtionships instead of regulations, labels or legal responsibilities. […] Regulations are imperfect substitute for trust, which is an essential factor of a market where producer and consumer can look at each other in the eyes.»

The Social Purchasing Group “Baratto” (i.e. “barter”) was founded in 2011 with an agreement among organic holdings, farms, producers of traditional products, farm hilday centres located in the area of Abruzzi hinterland and mountains. This organization has triggered a virtuous circle in terms of social economy, where the members share the following concepts:

• economy is founded on the exchange of one’s products at “source price” (cost of production), with as less packaging as possible, giving priority to such a value as human relationships instead of money. From “producer-distributor-consumer” to faces, names, personal values, wishes, relationships based on trust and sharin;
• collective purchase of food products not available in our county area (rise, special sorts of cheese, citrus fruit and so on) and non-food products (detergents, clothes, renewable energy and so on);
• support of projects from Third World countries for the purchase of such products as coffee, sugar, cocoa, spices and so on.

The Social Purchasing Group “Barter” takes an active role in

• protection and development of our territory, including its culture and traditions, through projects aimed at boosting the local micro-economy (especially after the tragic earthquake of 6th Aprile 2009 in L’Aquila and surroundings);
• support of responsible turism, in order to defend our environmental patrimony and smake its beauty, traditions and products known to a wider audience;
• support of “R.e.s. Abruzzo” (Abruzzi County Network of Social Economy). This network boosts synergy among producers, purchasing groups, fair trade shops, volunteering associations and all those subjects who share the values inspiring the national network of social economy.