Research and didactics weren’t the only arguments of interest, together with openness towards companies, big or small: these were the focus points of the convention, involving research and innovation in plant nurseries, and the protection of the Made in Italy brand. The event, entirely dedicated to floral-horticultural nurseries’ potentials and future prospects, was held on the 14th of December and it was organized by FORAGRI in the Economics University of Verona.

“Today we begin a new path, a new challenge for 2017: we must qualify the Italian nursery production as better than the European standards. We want to and we must be better than what Europe makes of us” is what the president of CIVI Italia, Giandomenico Consalvo, said. The president of the association that reunites different nursery consortia that operate on the national level went on to say:” To grow, we must all work inside the same system, and we cannot leave anybody behind. This is why training and development is so important, together with making partnerships especially with the Universities, which must be a strong partner, a partner with credibility, that can and must support the companies”.

Stefano Bianchi, President of the inter-professional group ForAgri, also had something to say about the necessity to promote and support the education and qualification of who works in an industry that employs 114 thousand people:” The floral-horticultural nurseries’ activity is a very dynamic industry in the Italian economy, even if the crisis has hit them as well. As ForAgri, we firstly intend to build a strong relationship with the researchers of this industry, by giving the right education to the people that the companies need, and secondly, we must work on a national system to certify these men and woman, a tool that already is used in other European nations”. The director of ForAgri, Roberto Bianchi added:” Without the work conducted by the nurseries, the horticultural products couldn’t reach the market with the same appreciation and success rate as they do now”.

The entire Nuenda Team was also present at the conference to display their game-changing innovation in grafting technology: the Nuenda Incubation System.
As we were very well received by the Italian nursery community at the conference, we would like to thank the whole Nuenda Team, Emanuele Ilary and Stefano, with a special thank you to ForAgri for have given us the opportunity to participate and intervene in such an important and innovative conference.
Another big step and a beautiful educational experience of great significance.