Rossi, executive director of agro-food, said, “My dairy team and I have experienced exciting years, during which we have built a worldwide network by selecting the best distribution channels and sharing with them a partnership path that has allowed business developments in more than 110 countries around the world.
“The new role of commercial director of the agro-food business unit has a particularly important significance to me. By leveraging my accumulated experience, I will give my contribution to positioning Sacco System in new emerging sectors that foresees very important growth trends in the upcoming years.
"The new agro-food BU is made up of several market segments, all of which are nonetheless characterized by one important element they share, namely the innovation and enhancement of our microorganisms as an added value to our customers’ production processes.”
Rossi said the probiotics the company offers for the plants and livestock sectors allow, in addition to improving the health of plants and animals, for the increase of yields by reducing, or in many cases even eliminating, the use of antibiotics, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers.
“We are fully aware of the relevance this element carries in the choice made by the final consumer,” he said.
The company is also extending its interest to other sectors such as fermented food vegetables, non-alcoholic beverages where it is experimenting with the culture that improves the aroma, especially in fruit-based ones. Other rapidly-evolving segments, Rossi said, are the bakery and the beer sectors, where the company will experiment with mixtures composed of yeasts and bacteria to enhance the organoleptic properties.
“Research and development have always been a fundamental pillar for Sacco, also in light of our growth-oriented mentality,” Rossi said.
“For what concerns the plant sector, the company has recently signed a collaboration agreement with a technological platform, Landlab, to cooperate in the testing of innovative microorganisms, both in vitro (greenhouse) and directly in the field.”
Rossi said Sacco System’s customers are interested in creating products with a high quality and safety standard, and Sacco System’s process and protection crops allows for a controlled fermentation while the protection ones act as a natural antagonist towards the unwanted flora that can give rise to deterioration of the product.
He said the cultures can also be used as an alternative to yeast for consumers who wish to switch to a diet without added yeasts, which he said is “a revolution for yeast-intolerant people, and even more so for gourmets, continuously in search of particular products reminiscing of the ancestral tastes of leavened bread and cakes.
“The use of our crops has therefore become "transversal" to multiple sectors, ranging from the dairy sector to many other markets in the food and agri-food sector.”
Rossi said the company will target the B2B sector and complete the production chain starting from agriculture, and for this reason, it has joined the "farm to fork" program.