TRIESTE, Italy – On the occasion of the Triestespresso Expo, Friday 28th October 2022, in the Trieste Convention Center (TCC) in the Porto Vecchio of the city, the event Trieste Coffee Experts – the Preview took place as an event designed by the Trieste company Bazzara.
At the preview of the Bazzara event, from 2 to 5 p.m., the greatest names in the Italian coffee sector took turns, introduced by the President of the Region Massimiliano Federica who, with an exclusive video (https://youtu.be/4tW8fq57u6E), gave his greetings to the audience.
Trieste Coffee Experts – the Preview
The President: “Events like the one organised by Bazzara are extremely important. Coffee is not only a quality product, but it is a ritual which I hope can be recognised also on an international level, supporting a tourism lured by this unique experience. That’s why my wish is that right this event and its atmosphere can help the institutions work together in order to boost this team feeling and the promotion of our territory”.
At the biennial summit several current topics concerning the entire coffee production system have been dealt with, with a focus on sustainability. An occasion to reflect and discuss which has allowed, through dialogue, to find the best ways to face the challenges of the market and has underlined the need of networking: pool the strengths of the whole sector and foster the sharing of knowledge and expertise to improve each professionalism has always been a focus for Bazzara.
Sustainable development
Mauro Bazzara, host of the event, underlined in his speech the need of a cultural change and the business model, going from a linear pattern of a limitless extraction to a circular pattern which ideally blocks the extraction to the necessary minimum level.
Mauro Bazzara says, “our reference point is the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. Therefore, the purpose of our company can expressed in a nutshell as “coffee for pleasure, people & planet”. This means for us – also as a benefit Society – not limiting our job to offer a sustainable product but being a sustainable company. Among the new common aims listed in the company bylaws, some stand out: the compromise for the environment from different perspectives, such as, the development of sustainable practices and innovation processes, the aim of having a positive impact on people and of supporting synergies and collaborations with every stakeholder”.
The “Trieste Coffee Experts – The preview” has been a stage dedicated to great names of the coffee world. Besides Mauro Bazzara, CEO of the roasting company, other major figures have participated, e.g., Massimiliano Fabian, newly elected president of ICO, International Coffee Organisation; the Earl Giorgio Caballini di Sassoferrato, President of the Consorzio per la tutela del caffè Espresso Italiano Tradizionale; Omar Zidarich, President of the Gruppo Italiano Torrefattori; Fabrizio Polojaz, President of the Trieste Coffee Association, and Luigi Morello, President of the IEI, Istituto Italiano Espresso.
Coffee circular economy
Other great names of the sector took part in the event, such as, Michele Cannone and Edoardo Cucco, respectively Global Brand Director and Brand Manager of Lavazza; Massimo Renda, president of Caffè Borbone; Giuseppe Biffi, Digital Enterprise Siemens and Cosimo Libardo, Strategic Advisor of the World Specialty Coffee Organisation and newly elected treasurer of the International Board of the Specialty Coffee Association.
Massimiliano Fabian in his speech says that among his main objectives of the year, there is also making ICO more efficient, making the heavy red tape simpler to be really efficient and to have a practical impact to boost the coffee circular economy which should be seen as the common goal of the entire sector.
On its part, the sector must be seen as a whole, including, thus, producing countries, public and private companies which ICO would like to put in contact one with the other, providing them with data, and useful informatics instruments to plan a more sustainable activity.
Trieste Coffee Association
Fabrizio Polojaz, as representative of a sector association, did an excursus on the evolution of the roaster’s job and the preparation of espresso coffee – identifying our coffee companies as a typical expression of the current Italian industry, underlining the important role of the Trieste Coffee Association.
Omar Zidarich highlights a change in the attitude of the coffee world after the difficult moments of the last years, making evident a greater availability to create dialogue among the protagonists of the production system. An exchange of information, based on real facts, such as the data sharing about the industrial processing waste as fundamental ingredient to produce biogas. Something that on a vast scale can represent a victory for the whole sector.
Luigi Morello to take stock of the coffee world situation faced the topic of quality as a whole. Explaining how the Italian Espresso Institute offers consulting services as far as certifications are concerned; as well as promotion and training on coffee, concluding that if the final consumer was well trained, also the taboo of the selling price could be eliminated.
Michele Cannone and Edoardo Cucco opened the speeches concerning the topic “Innovation & Sustainability Oriented” driving the audience attention on the case history of the product “La Reserva de Tierra Cuba”, a coffee that has as a target those consumers who want to find in what they buy the same ethical values and the same social responsibility that characterise them. Therefore, they are also ready to pay for a premium product.
A fight against waste
Massimo Renda stated that in the perspective of sustainability the key is to listen more to the customer, who is already very aware. Consumers who must be seen as an input for a virtuous race among the different production systems and that with their choices repays the companies that work more to make production systems more efficient, that use more the renewable energies and promote a continuous fight against waste.
Giuseppe Biffi explained how the digital factory can help companies to reach new targets as far as traceability and producing efficiency are concerned. Key elements to satisfy those customers who, to be loyal to the brand, want to have transparent data on the origins and the certifications of the products, want quicker and more precise reactions in case of complains and want to reflect themselves in the ethical values promoted by companies.
Biffi did not overlook the topic of sustainability: with the aim of improving, an industry responsible for 1/3 of the total amount of energy consumption and of 20% of CO2 emissions must be equipped with high efficiency solutions and monitoring systems which allow to make every single step of the production system more efficient. Virtual simulators are, in this perspective, paramount because they allow to access an out of line design giving the opportunity to identify and produce only the most promising and efficient solutions.
The italian coffee capital
Last but not least in this preview of the Trieste Coffee Experts 2023, Cosimo Libardo who created a comparison between the reality of the great corporation and the one of the small businesses, identifying in the words “intent” and “instinct” the driving factors that distinguish them.
In a market that is more and more divided in small clusters and characterised by a fluidity which makes difficult a twelve-month planning, to become a great enterprise the small business must be able to talk to its consumers starting from its employees. They are, indeed, the first consumers and it is through them if a company can create a specific identity which becomes then a community and lays the foundations to conquer a wider market and become a great enterprise.
Triestespresso Expo is and important exhibition which confirms for Trieste the indisputable role of italian coffee capital, ends on 29th October with other exhibitions, tastings, workshops, and incredible training events. Among them the workshop by Andrea Bazzara with the title “The reason why the Bazzara’s coffeebooks, the production system and coffee tasting, now living their last reprint, had an international success” and the one by Marco Bazzara “The match between coffee and food seen as a form of art”, taking place in the B Room, Hall 27.
