Coop del Golfo is making huge strides in sustainability

SCAFATI, Italy: Italy’s leading flower growers’ cooperative, Coop del Golfo is making huge strides in sustainability. Syngenta, one of the world’s largest seed and pesticide suppliers, has joined forces to make that happen.

A new partnership between Coop del Golfo and Syngenta was announced at a July 12 conference at Villa Oscar in Boscoreale.

At the conference, Coop del Golfo stated that the cooperation illustrates how ambitious both companies are when it comes to sustainable growth.

Diminishing options for crop protection products and customer pressure to minimise pesticide use are pushing the cooperative away from dependence on traditional pesticides. Syngenta, in turn, is highly committed to improving sustainability of agriculture businesses, a key message that can be found in its Good Growth Plan, launched in 2014.

Coop del Golfo joins Syngenta in innovation, education, certification and crop support that will lead to ad hoc crop protection solutions for the cooperative’s members. Coop’s ultimate goal is to bolster its presence in a highly competitive fresh cut flower market.

Founded in 1989, the Coop del Golfo is a traditionally-structured floricultural cooperative with 250 member growers. Grown in the Agro Nocerino Sarnese area on the lower slopes of Mount Vesuvius at 100 – 500 metres above sea level, their range of cut flowers is arguably one of the world’s best. A combination of successful breeding programmes, intense sunlight, fertile volcanic soils and a dedicated workforce provide optimal conditions for producing a wide variety of fresh cut flowers and cut foliage. Coop del Golfo growers cultivate their ornamentals on 150 ha of land; in greenhouses, polytunnels or in the field.

Italy is home to a sizeable production of cut flowers with a production value of  2.5 billion euro and accounting for 2% of all export sales. The Campania region is the largest producer of cut flowers in Italy and the largest producer of ornamental plants and cut foliage in southern Italy, also dubbed ‘Mezzogiorno’.

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