FBL x parma impianti rivista

Waiting for CIBUS TEC
No doubt the markets stagnation occurring
worldwide is heavily affecting
the food industry, both the producers
of finished goods and the makers of
systems intended for this important
industrial sector.
Cibus TEC 2005, the Parma exhibition
of clear international reputation
for the area, can definitely give a
more complete picture of the situation.
During the several meetings
and conventions planned for those
days, from their debates and talks,
new working hypotheses, new ideas
will certainly come out. Useful to
overcome this dead end which has
severe effect on this industrial sector
so closely related to Parma.
Waiting for the show, the magazine,
thanks to its contacts and a constatly
performed monitoring and indepth
study, wishes to venture on an
exercise of a purely technical nature.
Which takes as a reference point
a specific sector of uppermost importance:
the tomato processing,
since ever backbone of Parma industry.
Without forgetting the negative role
played by the ongoing world slump,
unfortunately very serious, the preliminary
remarks to point out, at once
evident, are rather unfavourable
from some points of view, and shared
by so many sectors of an industry
not only Italian.
It is fair to recognise that research,
first of all, is inadequate: on a national
scale may be it was never supported
by definite effort and investments
(on the part of companies
and institutions) aiming at the formulation
of new products with related
manufacturing technologies.
One can easily notice how too
many food items displayed on supermarkets
shelves incorporate technologies
developed by research
institutes outside Italy. Moreover, still
today a part of our home industry is
tending to retreat into the glorious
positions reached in an often remote
past but that now are becoming obsolete
and cause some uncalled
anxiety.
In addition to this, the ever-growing
phenomenon of our cutting-edge
plant engineering being unfailingly
copied in some emerging countries
and from there spread around. Which
is made easier by the clear gap
in the material and labour costs, of
course to our detriment.
From all these thoughts, a little reflection,
a line of defence surely not
upsetting by however feasable, arises.
Failing alternative and innovative
technologies at once available, a
possible maximum utilization of the
plants offered by our industries,
could be taken into consideration.
Their features may so be expanded,
incorporating on the lines at present
devoted to typically seasonal productions,
different technologies enabling
the plant to run non-stop at
peak production on its whole. These
technologies, for the same basic
output capacities, must be suitable
to fully exploit, besides the real pro-
by Mario Diemmi
duction lines, also that tremendous
bulk of auxiliary technical services,
every production plant should
always provide to the basic equipment.
No doubt this reflection involves a
thorough survey of the geographic
areas, their distintive features, the
knowledge of existing and possible
cultivations, the expected market
outlets. It should also include some
comments regarding the fresh product
processing lines, ever-increasing
in some areas, with peak
working capacities yielding such large
quantities often hardly selling through
direct consumption.
To do a similar exercise, considering
that our industry is since ever historically
linked to tomato, we can test
the procedure with a plant for the
processing of this vegetable including
a line for the traditional production
of tomato paste and pulp, or, alternatively,
of peeled or diced tomatoes.
Now a few technical details, shortly
described as on the other hand re-
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