Italian supplier Apofruit Italia has laid out plans to reorganise and rationalise its operations in the face of growing costs and an increasingly challenging international marketplace.
However, around 150 workers at a packhouse in Longiano, Emilia-Romagna, belonging to Apofruit have gone on strike in protest at a related proposal to outsource its transport operations, a move which will reportedly affect some 30 people employed at the site.
As reported on the Romagna Noi website and also on the website of Italian trade monthly Corriere Ortofrutticolo, around 300 workers across the whole company could ultimately be affected by the move, although the intention is to employ the same staff through the new third-party arrangement.
Renzo Piraccini, Apofruit's general director, said the plans presented by the company entailed simply a reorganisation, not redundancies.
'I recall that employment grew by 2 per cent in 2009,' he told reporters. 'I would have expected a more constructive and responsible attitude on the part of the trade unions, who are not faced with a multinational that wants to exploit the situation, but with organised producers who from the start of the year have been working well below the cost of production.'
The Longiano facility is understood to be back in operation now, with other packhouses owned and operated by Apofruit in Emilia-Romagna and elsewhere in Italy also said to be functioning as normal.
During the past few weeks, Apofruit has outlined to its members and employees how the proposed reorganisation will help it strengthen its business model in order to meet the considerable challenges of the current trading environment.
Of particular note are plans to reduce the company's existing 10 units through a process of natural downsizing, by not replacing employees as they retire or leave the company under normal circumstances.
As part of the reorganisation, packhouses in Altedo, Vignola and San Martino in Spino in Emilia-Romagna will become more specialised, although the company has made it clear that there will be no reduction in the volume of products handled by each facility.
The San Martino in Spino packhouse will continue to handle melons and watermelons, while onions will be moved to Altedo, where potatoes – a similar product in terms of sorting, grading and distribution – are already handled.
A spokesman for Apofruit said: 'The serious crisis, which affects everyone involved in the agricultural sector and particularly fruit and vegetables, with serious repercussions for farmers who see their profits fall, compels all of the handling and marketing companies, and in particular the cooperatives, to rationalise their processes and reduce their costs in order to create better value for its own members' production.'
No comments yet