Last week’s flood in Emilia-Romagna caused widespread disruption to the technology company’s entire production facility in Lugo
Italy company Unitec, one of the fresh produce industry’s leading providers of sorting and grading technology, says it is back up to full operational capacity after a “sea of mud and debris” engulfed its entire production complex in Lugo, near Ravenna, last week.
The disaster is understood to have affected the company’s various production facilities as well as its canteen, guesthouse, and an educational centre. It also took out servers and other equipment. In some cases, the flood was apparently over a metre in height.
“We’re not giving up, but immediate structural interventions are crucial,” said Angelo Benedetti, the group’s president. “There’s still work to be done, but we’re already able to proceed with our current production plans.”
Unwelcome return
The flood was the result of unseasonably high rainfall from Cyclone Boris which struck the region of Emilia-Romagna as well as a number of other parts of the country.
The storm led to widespread, severe flooding of several key fruit and veg production areas, and came just 16 months on from an even larger and more devastating flood, which destroyed more than a million fruit trees and vast swathes of vegetable fields in Emilia-Romagna.
Following three intense days, and with help from external specialists, production at Unitec’s Lugo plant is back up and running.
“While the initial shock was overwhelming – especially since we’d faced similar issues in the last emergency – a pragmatic spirit quickly took hold,” Benedetti continued, noting that hundreds of members of staff had worked all hours available to them to restore the buildings to their normal state.
“This shared determination meant that even over the weekend, they worked from early morning until late at night to clean the entire production area, ensuring we could keep our promises to our customers and maintain uninterrupted production and customer service.”
He added: “It’s a remarkable achievement, given the circumstances, but we can’t continue like this – at the mercy of unpredictable rains and rivers that might breach at any moment. We urgently need structural solutions, like flood control basins, to manage excess water beyond the capacity of the rivers. This time, Unitec managed to avoid the worst, but what about next time? This situation is unsustainable.”
