A surface of 64,000 square meters, a raw material processing capability of
40,000 tons, 200 employees, three vegatables processing lines and a pulse
processing line counting a total yearly production of 18,000 tons: these are
the main figures of the Vegitalia project.
The project was originally
promoted by Sviluppo Italia, in co-operation with the Italian Ministry of
Productive Activities and the Economics Ministry, finalized to promote
investments in our Country.
The Vegetalia project is a joint venture
between two japaneese multinational companies, Kagome Co. Ltd. and Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., and three italian partners (Villatosca srl local
enterpreneurs, Antonino Gatto and Giorgio Tenuta, who have promoted this
project) meeting the group's strategy for European expansion considering that
the Japanese Multinational company is one of the world's leader in the
production of food and beverages with a yearly turnover of more than 3 billion
USD.
The new production unit will be started in the industrial supply
area Fullone, near Cosenza, one of the most important agricultural areas in
Calabria, including the Crati valley, the S. Marco Roggiano and Sibari plains.
Start of operations is planned for June 2006; 67% of production will be
destined to Italy while the remaining 33% will be exported mainly to the UK and
France.
To optimize its processing activity, Vegetalia has chosen Levati
Food Tech as technical partner thanks to the experience achieved in processing
and packaging vegetables. Levati Food Tech will supply a tubers and vegetables
processing line witha a capacity of 5.000 kg/h, two peppers, eggplant and
zucchini processing lines with a total hourly capacity of3500 kg., a pulse and
cereals processing line with a capacity of 1000 kg/h and one automatic
packaging line which provides a controlled temperature packaging and weighing
system to pack single products or vegetable mixes (up to 10 products) in
pouches from 250 g. up to 2500 g.