The Sardinian Agri-food Market, with the introduction of an electronic commerce platform, opens the way to a new way of exchanging and distributing agricultural and food products.

This innovation makes it possible to purchase fruit and vegetables at any time of the day, thus responding to the growing need for convenience and speed, typical of new consumer habits.

The Sestu hub is a candidate to be a national trailblazer in the adoption of digital technologies in the agri-food sector.

The experiment, in addition to modernizing the market, will be made available to the Italmercati network so that it can be replicated in other markets.

"As a management body - explains the president of Coagri Sardegna Cenzo Pisano - we have the task of promoting local production and enhancing the offer at the best market conditions. If until now the negotiations on the prices of the products took place in the gallery, soon we will get used to using the virtual gallery too. Each operator will have a digital store within the dedicated website and this will allow us to work independently and better manage sales and deliveries. With the market place platform we will offer a service active 24 hours a day - continues Pisano - and we will be able to satisfy the needs of all customers, including those who prefer not to have to physically go to the market.

By optimizing the delivery times of the goods, the freshness of the fruit and vegetables will be guaranteed throughout the distribution chain and from the field to the table less than twelve hours will pass. A result that will also benefit the final consumer”.

The WUHAO project (acronym for Wholesale markets and University to build Healthy & sustainable AgrifOod) is funded by the European Union with NextGenerationEu through the cascade call On Foods of the University of Parma, coordinated by the University of Foggia and sees within the partnership, in addition to Coagri Sardegna (the body managing the Agri-food Market of Sardinia), Cal (the body managing the Parma market) and the municipality of Andria which manages the wholesale market of the same name.

"The BtoB platform is aimed at local regional businesses but in the future it is also open to national customers and will become a tool dedicated not only to the purchase of fruit and vegetable products - underlines the director of Coagri Sardegna, Giorgio Licheri - but will also serve to promote the agri-food production of Sardinia, through digital marketing techniques specific to the sector. The prototype will be ready in June and fully operational by September 2025. For the management and promotion of the platform we have already contracted the company Attiva, in collaboration with other strategic regional and national partners. As a fruit and vegetable market - continues Licheri - we are available to experiment with this system and then share it with other interested Italian markets. With this project we will offer a more efficient and effective service and we will meet the needs of each category: specialized retailers, school canteens, public and private collective catering, large-scale retail trade and tourist facilities.

Furthermore, wholesalers will increase sales volumes with a service open throughout the day and customers will be able to make purchases without having to go to the Sestu facility, thus strengthening the market's role as a regional fruit and vegetable exchange. In the future, deliveries may be made using green, environmentally friendly vehicles. In short, we are truly enthusiastic about this research project and we want to invite our market customers and all potential interested parties to access the new services by participating in the testing of the market place prototype that we are going to create. Starting in February - concludes Licheri - on our website: agromercatosardegna.it and on our social pages, it will be possible to register and then be contacted by the management of the market offices".

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