The Marche region has been declared the area with the longest-lived population in Italy. The secret? A healthy lifestyle and a precise attention to diet, but not only; the exceptional configuration of the territory contributed in particular to achieving this goal. The Marche (the plural is a must for the great diversity of cultures, traditions, habits and dialects) are characterized by a succession of small valleys, bounded by the Apennine chain on the western front and by the sea on the eastern one, with exceptional microclimates that benefit of sea / mountain convective exchanges.
STORY
“Le Marche”, (as the territory of the Marche region is commonly indicated) consists of small and medium-sized valleys that flank the waterways on their way to the sea. In all from 30 to 60 km from the Apennines to the Adriatic which allow an intense and multifaceted agricultural system, including for the most part olive trees and vines on the hillside (it is worth remembering that the extra virgin olive oil and the wines of the Marche are universally considered of superlative quality), then cereals for renovations, still a few orchards on the intermediate altimetrically areas and vegetables in the plains.
Therefore we have many valleys, many pedoclimatic situations which correspond to many cultivation possibilities of vegetable species and varieties. Meanwhile, the chemical-physical composition of the soils, although often dissimilar from one valley to another and from the mountain to the sea, has a detectable constant in the cultivation fraction due to the content of clay, silt and sand in optimal doses for the medium mixture. with good cation exchange capacity which reduces the use of fertilizers; therefore the formation and the contents of mineral salts, sugars and vitamins in the vegetables grown there are superlative. In addition to the different suitability of the soils of different valleys, there is the climatic effect or rather of the microclimates of the different valleys on different species and varieties, which allow a large and varied production range across the Marches. The background: since the 19th century, the Marches, already well-known for the professionalism of their horticulturists for the superior quality coming from their production sites, had developed a horticultural trade towards increasingly distant markets, up to the regions of Northern Italy; just after the Second World War, the distances for horticultural productions from the Marche to Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France stretched and then invaded the entire European continent in the 1960s. But the continent needed more and more quantities. The Marches, although in possession of the superlative characteristics of their vegetables, were less and less able to feed the flows both in terms of quantity and in the times and periods of supply with the same horticultural species. Recall that consumption ran towards a growing standardization and the acceptability requirement of the vegetable became the same as the product itself, for days, months and maybe for the whole year. We were at the beginning of the era of mass consumption, hydroponic cultivation, large production systems with hormones, chemical forcing, radiation with consequent seasonal adjustment of consumption with all that has involved and will entail. The agro-industrial operators of the Marches, with rapid graduality, inevitably oriented themselves not to lose the vocationality of the territories, the professionalism of the employees and the quality of their vegetables, rather they decidedly started a productive remodeling, aimed at strengthening the sector activity, allocating crops for fresh consumption to the high-quality consumption range (which still exists, even if quantitatively more limited) and increasing horticultural crops for freezing, resorting to cutting-edge technologies suitable for freezing large units of time quantity of product. We recall that the first frozen vegetable plant in Italy was built in San Benedetto del Tronto in the early 1960s. However, the high quality of origin of vegetables is not enough if you do not have the technical means to properly preserve it and we in our field of activity do this every day. Our technological apparatus has been created and is constantly updated with the aim of maintaining the quality requirements of the open field product through the simultaneous processing within a few hours of harvesting. In summary, in addition to agricultural products, the workers, technicians and services, the apparatus consists of technologies such as: two spinach / chard / chicory processing lines for 16,500 kg / hour, selection, washing, blanching, portioning, freezing. Three pea / green bean / broad bean processing lines for 17,000 kg / hour – a tomato / tomato processing line for 4,000 kg / hour – a potato / carrot / onion line for 4,000 kg / hour – a multi-purpose celery / spelled / zucchini line for 3,500 kg / hour – an aubergine / pepper / courgette grilling line for 1,200 kg / hour – a puree / velvety / sauces line for 1,200 kg / hour – a flouring / castellatura / breading / frying line of vegetables, olives, mozzarella, polenta for 1,000 kg / hour – three weighing and packaging lines for 6,000 kg / hour – storage cells for bulk and automatic for packaged goods with a capacity of 9,000,000 kg. – 5 sorting systems – operating machines with adequate potential – electrical systems for refrigeration, water treatment, etc. In short, nature in the Marche region mixed with professionalism and technology offers us a superlative product that we can only secure, without intermediate storage of the fresh, in a very short time. The other reasons to eat Marche’s frozen vegetables are still: – Integrated fight against the hostile causes of crops, ie administration of active ingredients, with a reduction of 80% of the minimum limits provided for by the law. – Organic line. – Traceability of the product contained in each package, starting from the producer to the consumer where it is possible to learn all the data useful for the complete information of anyone about our product. – Through third-party certifiers PROMARCHE guarantees the product and the production process with the certifications of the supplying farms pursuant to the UNI EN ISO standard and compliance with the DTP 021 standard for cultivation using integrated pest management techniques, compliance with the UNI 22005: 08 standard as a system of traceability of agro-food chains. BRC, IFS, QM quality certification from Marche, compliance with the requirements of EC Regulations 834/07 and 889/08 for BIO products. Certifications and conformities are everyday operational paths and not bulletin board medals! A digression that makes: – The low population density in the Marche region, the conformation and characteristics of the territory, the constant ventilation, the usual diets in food consumption, allow this land to have a very long human life span and in good health. to make it known as the longest-lived of the Italian populations. And does it seem little to you? Promarche advises you to limit the consumption of harmful foods (hydrogenated oils, flavorings, dyes), not only to children and the elderly but to everyone. To do better, although not all chains are our customers, always look for the wording “produced by ……………… in the San Benedetto del Tronto plant on the frozen food packages”.
Summarizing our strengths:
– geographical centrality with respect to the large consumption poles of northern and southern Italy (less particulate matter and carbon monoxide);
– Marche social structure simple, direct and usable both in the evolution of food habits and in the relationship between production systems, institutions, universities and research;
– Enviable pedoclimatic balance both from southern and northern Italy; we would also add with the layout and conformation of the landscape that is attractive for the landscape;
– Presence of cutting-edge technological devices that allow the simultaneous freezing of large masses of product Think about a quantity of 330,000 kg of pea or spinach harvested every day that within 1 ÷ 3 hours are frozen, preserving all the contents of non-thermolabile mineral salts and vitamins at –40 ° C, and then keeping them available in cold rooms at –22 ° C, having detected it from the field at ideal ripeness? We do it;
– Sensitivity, will and professionalism of the operators and technicians in continuous updating, to allow us to present an increasingly performing product.
Weaknesses: Products from open field cultivation of each vegetable only in the suitable season.
OUR COMPANY
A green soul
The Cooperative Consortium Promarche O.P. is an organization of fruit and vegetable producers from the Marche region that, for several decades, has been managing an agro-industrial complex active in the production of frozen vegetables. The cooperative members of Promarche, characterized by a strong technical-professional connotation, are linked by a set of recognizable positive values, which give agricultural productions, both those with their own brand and those of contract manufacturing, the excellence of taste, organoleptic characteristics and nutritional contents.
Promarche, based in San Benedetto (AP), operates in an area that stands out for its favorable soil and climatic conditions and is part of the Marche region culture characterized by eating habits linked to local products and based on the principles of proper nutrition. In recent decades, the consortium’s company production has switched from conventional crops to the use of the integrated pest management method, which provides for the reduction of 80% of the minimum legal limits of pesticides for phytosanitary treatments. Also noteworthy is the development of organic crops to which the fields have been converted.
OUR FACTORY
nature and technology
It stands on an area of 60,000 square meters (35,000 of which are covered) in the municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto, a strategic point of confluence of horticultural productions from Marche, Abruzzo, and other regions of southern Italy. Remarkable is the provision of advanced technologies to protect the quality of products and safety in the workplace.