FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AREA

The food production in the Mediterranean area is focused mainly in Ravenna, which is the centre of agricultural food production and distribution. Ravenna consists of logistic operators for fresh products and also for perishable good supply chains such as:

• ISTAT (Italian National Institute of Statistics) which provides information of the trade of perishable goods;

• ICE (Italian National Institute for Foreign Trade) which provides information on exports of products in Emilia-Romagna area.

• IMONODE PROJECT (Integration of transport modes and nodes in cargo with transport in central and south-eastern Europe).

Emilia-Romagna production excellencies developed within its

production chains. Indeed, the excellency of Emilia-Romagna's agroindustry

sector, which is, by tradition and importance, a distinctive

element of the economic system of the Region, is well known in Italy as

well as in Europe. This is due primarily to the wide range and high

quality of its typical productions as well as to the high technological

level of its industrial divisions.

Emilia-Romagna is specialiced both in local products on high

quality processed according to traditional methods (e.g. Parmigiano

Reggiano cheese, balsamic vinegar of Modena, Parma ham) and in

food processing machinery. In fact, Reggio Emilia and Modena account

for the highest concentration of agricultural machinery production in

Italy whereas in Bologna and Parma the production of industrial

packaging machines for food products is the most competitive at global

level.

The main components of Emilia-Romagna's agro-industry chain

are: fruit and vegetable, dairy products, pasta, meat, food and chemical

products, mechanics, transport and commercialization/packaging.

Emilia-Romagna is one of the strongest areas of the agricultural sector with gross sales of almost 2 billion Euros and involves the whole territory.

Main categories: fruit and vegetables, grapes and wine, cereals, processed foods and seed cultivation.

Main processed products: preserved tomatoes and by-products, canned and frozen vegetables, preserved fruit and fruit juice.

The region is rich in stock farms and processing industries. In fact a good part of Italian meat production takes place in the area.

The areas most intensively involved in breeding and the production of milk and its by-products are the provinces of Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Modena.

In these provinces cattle and pig breeding predominate while most poultry breeding is in the Forlì-Cesena area.

Emilia-Romagna region: a strategic location

Transport and logistic system for perishable goods

It consist in three functions which together contribute to the increase in value of the product in terms of service content and market proximity:

• Change of modality: use of the infrastructure as a “transit point”

• Integration of in/out flows: use of infrastructure as a “hub” for activities.

• Integration of logistic services: use of the infrastructure as a place to organize and carry out logistic activities or services.

The logistic platform aim is to increase the product value and optimize logistic costs. It must help activation of specific logistic solutions to improve transport efficiency.

Transport through Emilia-Romagna

Road transport

Transport by road is the most used mode of transport within the EU because of three main reasons:

• Road and highway networks cover any point-to-point connection.

• “Door to door” service avoiding the need to change the transport mode.

• Lowe costs as compared to other ways of transport, both for short and long distance transport.

Rail transport

Transport by rail could be more cost effective than by road, but the quality of the service is not competitive in terms of reliability and speed. It is known three weak points:

• There is no availability of direct links between origin and destination.

• Freight trains are given lower priority than passenger trains.

• There is a lack of preferential channels for perishable goods.

Sea transport

Transport by sea it is necessary to make a distinction between long and medium range transports.

Long range sea transport is used for perishable goods like deep frozen meat, fish, exotic and counter season fruits.

Medium range sea transport (SSS= Short Sea Shipping) is an alternative to road transport for perishable goods. This kind of transport is better in terms of time and cost. SSS could offer the same speed and times of road transport with much lower cost, specially for non-accompanied goods.

Perishable industries and sea transport in Italy

Fresh fruits and vegetables are transported mainly by sea transport because they have a shelf life compatible with this kind of transport and moreover because there are areas of origin and destination which can use this mode efficiently. The main import origin areas are Latin America (providing 40% of the imports), Southern Africa (which provides 4% of the imports), Spain, Greece and Turkey (which provides the three of them 30% of the imports).

Deep frozen food is transported by sea transport as well, because of its compatibility with it. Reefer containers are used and shelf life products are longer. The main attention is focused on the products costs. Other perishable goods as fresh fish and meat are also transported by sea transport because it takes less time to carry them from one point to

another.

Seaport systems

Italian seaports present many strong points, such as the volumes of the transported goods. The most important corridors for Italy are corridor number 8 along the West-East line in Southern-Eastern Europe, linking the Adriatic Sea with the Black Sea, and corridor 5 (Lisbaa-Kiev).

Vado Ligure is the main seaport for fresh fruit, the same way as Genoa is the main seaport for deep frozen meat. Genoa is the first seaport in Italy and the main one for the market in northern Italy where the highest consumption is.

On the other hand, Livorno is the main reference for the Tyrrenian area, which is characterized by a high fish production and consumption. Ancona is the main reference for the Adriatic area.Both Ancona y Livorno are the main seaports for deep frozen fish.

Air transport

Transport by air is the fastest and most expensive way of transport. However, it is necessary to shorten distances from production to distribution specially with products which shelf life is very short, like perishable products such as fresh fish or fresh meat.

The service by air must guarantee than good will be carried non-stop from the producer to the distributor.

The Italian airport system consist in a network made of 47 airports for goods transport. In Italy there are more than un 40% are imports transported by air and 60% of exports trade by air as well.

Italian airport system is based on its hubs: Milano Malpensa y Roma Fiumicino, although also has regional airport which plays an important role in the logistic management of mail transport.

FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

Emilia-Romagna is highly specialized in fruit and vegetable

processing and commercialization which are especially concentrated in

the provinces of Parma, Ravenna, Modena, Piacenza and Forlì. The

regional food and vegetable chain can be divided into three main

phases: production, processing and wholesaling.

The production phase is identified with the companies

specialized in supplying raw material to cooperatives to be sold fresh or

to other enterprises to be processed. Within the Region, there are about

90 cooperatively managed cooling facilities for storing fruit and

vegetables, which supply large retailers, wholesaling markets, and the

processing industry.

There are about 200 local units and more than 9.000 workers in

Emilia-Romagna that are employed in the fruit and vegetable

processing phase, especially in packaging and fruit juice production.

Parma has the highest concentration of such units (18,8%), followed by

Ravenna (17,9%), Modena (12,6%) and Bologna (12,6%) whereas

employees are more concentrated in Ravenna (29,8%) and

Forlì/Cesena (19,3%).

About 850 companies with more than 7400 workers are involved

in the wholesaling phase, in particular in the fruit and vegetable as

well as non-specialized frozen products wholesale. Forlì/Cesena is the

province where local units (23,4%) and workers (35,4%) are more

concentrated.

Excellent firms are mainly to be found in the processing as well

as wholesaling phase, the strategic hubs of the chain, where the most

part of its added value is created. Indeed, in these two phases Emilia-

Romagna presents the main competences and enterpreneurial

experiences that make the final products competitive on most markets.

Excellency in processing is capital intensive, whereas excellency in

wholesaling is labour intensive.

Main products: preserved fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, tomato

sauces.

The province of Ravena and Romagna area represent an important area of production for fresh fruits and vegetables. Between Italy, Africa and Europe 440.000 tons of fresh fruits and vegetables are imported, whereas 515.000 are imported.

FISH CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION IN MEDITERRANEAN COUNTRIES

In 1984 total domestic landings in the Mediterranean area was 4 048 281 tons. Imports accounted for about 46% of the total, while exports were about 19%. Apparent consumption was 5 128 596 tons. Total fish trade in the area showed a deficit of 1 080 315 tons, i.e. about 27% of total landings.

In terms of fish trade balance, among the countries examined during the workshop, only Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia showed positive figures. France, Italy and Yugoslavia had the largest deficits; in combination their share of the total fish trade balance was about 80%.

France, Spain and Morocco were by far the largest exporters; their combined share of total exports was about 70%. Exports from Turkey and Tunisia were limited, but mainly concentrated on high value species.

The principal importing countries were France, Italy and Spain, whose combined share of total imports in the area was about 68%. Algeria, Greece and Portugal showed a more limited dependence on imports, but the quantities of fish imported, in the range of 46 000 to 108 000 tons, were relatively high.

Self sufficiency in sea fish proteins was dramatically limited in many areas. Syria, Egypt, Cyprus, and Yugoslavia showed the lowest levels of self-sufficiency, from 6% for Syria to 21% for Yugoslavia.

Lack of fish obviously has a negative impact on per caput consumption level. The per caput levels in Yugoslavia, Cyprus and Egypt are reported to be only 3.1 kg, 3.8 kg and 4.9 kg respectively . Participants in the workshop were not able to provide a complete profile of the major species consumed in each country. However, it is well known that consumption in Algeria, Egypt and Yugoslavia is mainly based on low-value species resulting from the strong requirement for fish protein.

Emilia-Romagna is a great consumer of fresh fish but its industry is not well structured for it.

Frozen fish is imported straight from the producer to the processing and marketing industry. Road transport is used for short and medium distances whereas maritime transport is mainly used for some European and overseas routes. The area is central for the consumption market but the seaport is not very good.

MEAT PRODUCTION IN MEDITERRANEAN AREA

The meat industry is one of the most important in the Spanish food area. Meat can be produced and sold as a fresh product, as a cooked one and also as a typical dry-cured one in the Mediterranean area, i.e. dry cured ham, cured and fermented sausage and “sobrasada” among others.

These products have a big economic importance by themselves and as a development of the meat industry for their commercial possibilities. In 1997, the production of raw cured meat products was 353500 T. Dry cured hams production accounted for 51.6% for the mentioned amount.

The industry of manufacturing process of Spanish dry-cured ham is based in the traditional one, which relies on natural climate, when salting and post-salting is done in winter, at temperatures between 0ºC and 12ºC and relative humidity between 70 and 90%. The drying, maturing and ageing is carried out by following the climate conditions at each period of the year.

The outcome of ageing hams in spring and summer is a reduction in moisture content and the development of the main aromatic compounds. Dry-cured hams have a final moisture content between 28 and 60% and salt content between 3% to 9% in different muscles. The high and low moisture content allows storage without refrigeration.

Only in Emilia Romagna region meat imports reach about 1.363.000 tons and exports 362.000.

Meat industrial chain has two main activities, slaughtering and meat processing. The road transport is the main way of transport used for these products, specially for the exported ones.

White meat is produced by a large number of producers who can also supply logistic services. These logistic services are localized in the seaport of Ravenna. This gives the possibility to integrate maritime and road transport modes.

THE GILDA PROJECT

The GILDANET project proposes to transform the existing infrastructures into a working system based on reference architecture for the logistics at European level in full coherence with the user's needs and the emerging standards for mastering the business processes, using advanced Information and Communication Technological (ICT) solutions.

OBJECTIVES
The emerging political, social and economic integration of the European countries dominated by the expansion of the E.U. towards the Eastern countries sets new challenges and opportunities for transport. The current discontinuities and infrastructure limitations should be recovered, aiming at more effective and low cost integration of all the parties involved in multimodal transport chains. GILDA project, responding to this demand and based on the results of TRANSLOGNET/GILDA, has formulated an advanced ICT oriented implementation plan. This plan articulates in the following objectives:

· To enhance existing ICT-solutions (GILDA Italy, TRANSLOGNET, LOGLINE, other CADSES area transport portals) with capabilities to cooperatively support transnational transport chains. The approach used will be based upon recent developments in the area of interoperability, notably in the area of e-business and e-government. Specifically, efforts will be made to build upon the recommendations and deliverables of international standardization bodies.

· To build pilot systems, interconnecting ICT-solutions (GILDA Italy, TRANSLOGNET, LOGLINE, other CADSES area transport portals) among themselves and with legacy applications of other public/private actors to support specific transport chains, such as perishable goods, automotive and empty containers. These pilots will have to cover all pertinent processes of international transport chains.

· To define appropriate business models, showing the value add of these services to its clients and proving the sustainability of these ICT-services businesses to their stakeholders.

· By means of provision of these open and easy accessible ICT services, to establish a level playing field for SME`s and global players in planning and participating in multi-modal networks; allowing for interoperability not only between different competing transport sector applications, but with production and distribution processes as well. Main concept of the whole project is to develop regional (per country) platforms operated over Internet, which will interoperate with the GILDANET Integrated Portal. Through this portal and in combination with the applications that will be developed, all public and private organizations acting in the logistics freight transport sector can cooperate and perform their business and transport transactions. A significant activity will consist in the integration/customization of existing systems of public and private organizations participating in the project. More particularly, assistance will be provided to the latter parties in order to integrate selected legacy systems with the applications to be developed in GILDANET.

TELEMATICS AND IT SOLUTIONS FOR INTERMODAL SYSTEMS

GILDA/ITALY

GILDA project main objective was to develop an IT system to support the flows and the exchange of information and documents which are related to the intermodal transport chain.

In fact, the main objective of the GILDA Italy project was to transform the currently mostly manually performed operating tasks involved in transportation logistics into a series of computerized processes, to simplify them and to make them easily accessible to all Italian and European operators.

TRANSLOGNET/GREECE

Prime objective: to improve the efficiency of intermodal transport through a simple cost effective and open architecture system integrating the various actors in the logistics transport chain. Secondary objectives are for example, develop generic software solutions and an information network based on common building blocks or to develop an open telematics architecture based on latest low cost network developments.

The translognet project was carried out by following a kind of steps ( like study of the business environment in the network or analysis of the current technological infrastructure)and divided into three phases. The final results of the project were evaluated in the third phase.

INTEGRATION BETWEEN THE GILDA/ITALY AND TRANSLOGNET SYSTEMS

The transnational dimension of GILDA has been demonstrated with the integration between GILDA/Italy system and TRANSLOGNET in Greece. The integration work concerned the selection of documents and data to be exchanged and the definition and sharing of the software procedures to realize the exchange.

Moreover, two documents (previsione navi and CALINF)collect information about the position of vessels sailing between Italy and Greece.

PHYSICALL PLANING AND INTERMODALITY

IMONET

IMONET's assignment was to develop economic policy objectives and strategies for an environmentally viable, efficient, high-level multimodal node transportation network in Austria.

The main aim is to analyse the current situation and define measures for promoting combined transport.

SPIL /Slovenia

Characteristics of an efficient intermodal transport system in Slovenia were analyzed and determined by the SPIL project, which consist in two main modules: Spatial Planning (Module A) , which supports spatial development , and Information (Module B), which was expected to be the equivalent of the GILDA Italy project and analyses the existing and determinates the future telematic network .

The prime objective of the project was to improve the efficiency of intermodal transport through a simple cost effective and open architecture system.

THE TRANSNATIONAL SPATIAL PLANNING ASPECT OF GILDA

The whole GILDA project (GILDA, SPIL, IMONET and TRANSLOGENT) have been particularly designed to implement measures: the development of multimodal transport and equity of access to infrastructures and development of balanced and polycentric settlement systems.

The transnational spatial planning effects have been stronger in the SPIL project.

GILDA

The primary attention of the GILDA project was focused upon improvement of maritime transport.

IMONET

The main goal of the IMONET Project has been to develop transport and economic policy objectives and strategies for an environmentally sound, efficient, high-level multimodal node network in Austria. This objective has consolidated the transnational character of the project.

TRANSLOGNET

The TRANSLOGNET project goal has been to study and describe the existing environment in the field of multimodal transportation in Greece and in relation to other countries in the framework of GILDA project.

Apart from the transnational management and coordination structure of GILDA, there has been no joint work that would eventually have integrated the transnational spatial planning aspects of GILDA's integral projects. The projects have dealt with transnational spatial planning topics from different standpoints and to different extent. Transnationality is treated more as an argument for consolidation of the roles of individual (CT) nodes, than as an independent subject of research.

SPIL

The goal of European spatial and transportation policy is to co-ordinate the multi-level interests in the development of transportation and communication systems, including the development of a network of intermodal logistic terminals. The transnational orientation of Slovenian spatial planning requires strengthening of railway transportation and particularly the construction of a fast railway routes.

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