Barilla Gıda Launches "Sustainable Agriculture Model"

Barilla Gıda shared its work in Turkey at the Agricultural and Food Value Chain Summit, held for the second time this year by the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Agricultural Platform. Piero Mirra, General Manager of Barilla Gıda, presented the company's sustainable agriculture initiatives implemented in Turkey and the results achieved with technological support during the session "Sustainable Transformation in Durum Wheat Farming." Mirra disclosed that when comparing the results of Barilla's proprietary sustainable agriculture model with traditional methods, revenues increased by 6 percent, while costs fell by 7 percent, ecological footprint decreased by 8 percent, and carbon footprint declined by 19 percent. Barilla Gıda participated in the Agricultural and Food Value Chain Summit, held for the second time this year by the Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Agricultural Platform. Academics, leading sector executives and entrepreneurs discussed the future of climate change and sustainable agriculture at this year's event. During the full-day summit, more than 20 speakers shared details with participants on technology use in agricultural financing, innovative and sustainable approaches for the agricultural sector, building sustainable food systems, high productivity in the agriculture-food sector, agriculture-food with innovative technologies, digital farming applications in the GAP region through the Internet of Things, climate change and sustainability, legal perspectives on agricultural technologies, and the transition of white-collar workers to agricultural production. Piero Mirra, General Manager of Barilla Gıda, which carries out its work with the mission "Good for you, Good for the planet," presented innovative sustainable durum wheat farming applications implemented by Barilla in Turkey along with their results during the session "Sustainable Transformation in Durum Wheat Farming."

"We are committed to delicious and sustainable food production"

Piero Mirra, sharing details about Barilla's sustainability mission, said: "The concept of sustainability, which frequently appears in our time, means simply 'producing quality' for Barilla. We attach importance to ensuring that the products we offer to our consumers are not only delicious but also safe, healthy, and contribute to sustainable development goals. In this regard, we have adopted a mission as a company: 'Good for you, Good for the planet.' This mission summarizes all our business processes at Barilla. 'Good for you' means improving the nutritional profile of our current and future products and encouraging consumers to adopt healthy lifestyles and sustainable dietary models; 'Good for the planet' means making production processes more efficient with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and encouraging our suppliers to adopt sustainable farming practices," he said.

"Reducing the environmental impact of pasta production"

Speaking about the initiatives the company has undertaken to make its production conditions more sustainable, Mirra stated: "There are five key topics we prioritize when conducting our supply chain activities: production efficiency and competitiveness, business integrity, quality and food safety, respect for the environment and sustainable cooperation. At the same time, in order to make our production processes more sustainable, we conduct an assessment called 'Life Cycle Assessment.' Under this methodology, we analyze the environmental impact of our products from farm to table; we observe the carbon, water and ecological footprint they leave on the environment. As a result of this assessment, we determined that the stage where pasta production has the highest environmental impact is production in the field, and we concluded that improvements need to be made in this area by focusing farmers on their crop cultivation system. Our business partners' adoption of a more sustainable product cultivation model also forms the foundation for us to provide our consumers with protein-rich, nutritious, that is, higher-quality pasta," he said.

"We increased our farmers' income by 6 percent"

Referring to work done in previous periods to develop sustainable farming practices in Turkey, Piero Mirra said: "One of the prominent features of our sustainable farming activities is our technological application called the Decision Support System. Thanks to this application, which is very easy to use, our producers can easily access all details relating to climate conditions, soil conditions and crop varieties, and with the guidance they receive, they can benefit from having the right amount and right timing in critical stages such as seeding, irrigation and fertilization. At our two different meteorological stations positioned in Thrace, 20 of our farmers tested our sustainable farming model throughout the last season in light of data and information collected at more than 2,000 stations around the world to develop our sustainable farming model. Thanks to our sustainable farming model, we identified a 7 percent reduction in costs, an 8 percent reduction in ecological footprint, and a 19 percent reduction in carbon footprint. The income obtained by our producers increased by 6 percent. We transformed the results of this research, which we conducted in cooperation with Tekirdağ Namık Kemal Üniversitesi Faculty of Agriculture, into a handbook that we believe can serve as a guide to all producers, and we consider this to be another important element of the project. With this handbook, we aim to reach more farmers and promote sustainable durum wheat farming throughout Turkey," he said.

"We source all durum wheat from local sources"

Noting that Barilla Gıda conducts contracted durum wheat production this season across Turkey with approximately 400 farmers on 40,000 decares, and emphasizing that Turkey is a net importer in this field, Mirra spoke as follows: "Following the principle of our founder Pietro Barilla, 'You will not produce anything you would not feed to your children,' we have continued our production in Turkey from 1994 to today. From day one, we have worked to meet all our raw materials through local production. We are making efforts to develop our contracted and sustainable farming activities in Turkey. I am pleased to say that today we source 100 percent of the durum wheat used in the production of both Filiz and Barilla branded pasta from local sources. We will continue and develop our efforts in this area in the coming years."