Report of the conference held in Verona on the theme “The agricultural business: fragility, resilience, success” promoted by the Lambertini & Associati Law Firm, Masi Agricola, Banca Passadore and with the qualified intervention of Confagricoltura.
The meeting entitled ” Agricultural Businesses: Fragility, Resilience, Success” was held yesterday in Verona, at the Banca Passadore headquarters, promoted by Banca Passadore, the Lambertini & Associati law firm and Masi Agricola , with the qualified intervention of Confagricoltura .
During the conference, the first of a series of further in-depth studies, corporate, legal and fiscal aspects were examined, as well as the regulatory and management peculiarities of the business in the primary sector: the agricultural business both in family and corporate form.
The introductory speeches were given by PierGiovanni Ferrarese , President of Youth Confagricoltura Verona, by Alberto De Togni , President of Confagricoltura Verona and by Massimiliano Giansanti, National President of Confagricoltura , who underlined: “In the last twenty years, the overall number of agricultural companies has is significantly reduced, compared to a slight decline in the agricultural area used in the same period of time. At the same time, individual businesses have decreased. Companies in the primary sector, therefore, are aggregating and structuring themselves more. At the same time, the use of agriculture 4.0 techniques has significantly increased without any particular reduction in manpower. In this context, it is essential that financial initiatives capable of stimulating innovation are adopted to facilitate competitiveness”.
The lawyer Lamberto Lambertini carried out his speech on the legal aspects, summarized as follows: ” The corporate structure of the agricultural enterprise is dominated by simple companies or partnerships, therefore particularly fragile in the case of conflicts between shareholders: the Shareholder Administrator it can be too easily revoked and has no real possibility of defence, all aggravated by the risks of annual reporting without rigid schemes, and therefore often imprecise and imaginative. The hope is that the corporate structure of these companies can be more resilient and equipped”.
Nicola Caputo, the Confagricoltura Fiscal Area Director , focused on the objectively expanded scope of agricultural activities and the lack of precise regulations, also addressing the issue of the figure of the professional agricultural entrepreneur (IAP) in agricultural companies. Accounting requirements and taxation also require regulatory revisions.
The notary Cristiano Casalini focused his speech on the generational transition and the deleterious risk of fragmentation of agricultural dimensions in the succession phase.
The debate was coordinated by the Cavalier del Lavoro Sandro Boscaini , President of Masi Agricola , who summarized as follows: “The agricultural enterprise is ancestral, fulfilling the primary need for nourishment, it represents one of the fundamental cells of society. The very meaning of coexistence and the State then develops from it. From this initial help from man to the mother earth, to make it produce more and better, the exchange of goods naturally arises and we gradually arrive at the most current industrialization of production, transformation, conservation and marketing processes. All this explains how the agricultural business is currently very complex as the primary functions converge with the industrial and service ones, which are not always well regulated. We hope that the regulations will be updated.”