Interview with José Chacon, Senior Enginner of Pastas Gallo
What does your company do?
Gallo is the largest pasta producer in the Iberian Peninsula, with a track record of more than 75 years, always committed to quality, innovation and sustainability. Today, our range of products continues to grow, introducing broths, vegetable pastas and gluten-free pastas to the market, as a result of our desire to achieve excellence and offer our consumers their product wherever they are.
How important is sustainability for your company?
Gallo would not be understood without sustainability. Our origins lie in the heart of the Cordoba countryside, where the cultivation of quality durum wheat to make the best pasta was promoted in the 1950s by Don José Espona, generating not only agro-environmental sustainability, but also its social and economic aspects. Subsequently, the company has always been linked to projects that are committed to sustainability, such as its participation in the seed selection company Agrovegetal or, as in this case, LIFE Innocereal.
What are the main challenges and opportunities facing the cereal sector in terms of sustainability?
We could talk about three well-defined branches. Agri-environmental sustainability, producing more with less, being more efficient when it comes to generating food, so that each unit of fertiliser that we apply to our crop is fully exploited by it. Economic sustainability, fundamental for the above to be feasible, crops have to be profitable. Finally, social sustainability, we need long-term projects, where the farmer is the protagonist.
What is your role in the LIFE Innocereal project?
Gallo participates in LIFE Innocereal EU to support the whole part of quality management in reference to durum wheat. We are pioneers in creating a quality standard for pasta in Spain and as such we can proudly say that we are able to assess whether new cultivation techniques generate raw materials that improve what we know so far. In short, we support innovation.
What will it mean for your company to collaborate with other entities to create a certification system for low-carbon cereals at European level?
It is a commitment to create a project for the future, but also for the present. The exchange of ideas always enriches and generates synergies. Basically, what we are looking for is to create a sustainable working model over time in the three areas we mentioned earlier: environmental, social and economic. Gallo is proud to do this with the support of entities such as the University of Cordoba or AETC and to share it with large companies.
Finally, what benefits can this project bring to companies in the cereal sector?
In addition to what has already been mentioned, it will facilitate communication between cereal consuming companies such as Gallo and producers. It will generate a climate of trust greater than that existing under the protection of a quality seal and will guide agriculture towards new challenges.