Getting Back to Basics Is Getting Business Back on Its Feet
It was last September. As I was vacationing in Sardinia, I had found in a magazine the address of a farm shop which according to Slow Food was among the best on the island. The directions were sketchy: the turn-off for Portobello di Gallura was all I got at the phone, but was favorably impressed after talking to the owner.
My wife and I got in the car for a 40-kilometer drive to what I thought was a normal retailer. We got lost and I had to call back a few times to ask for the way. When I found myself in the midst of nowhere and day was turning to dusk, I was finally told I was only a kilometer away. Behind a curve on the road, a lamp-post lit a two-floor building with a stocky man standing outside. On a wooden board, a hand-painted sign said: "Antichi Sapori di Sardegna" [Ancient Flavors of Sardinia]. Mario Usai is one of those entrepreneurs – although he would probably disagree with the definition – who are fun to meet. It wasn't a shop, but a house of his property hosting one of his three retail points. Briefly, he told me his story. Sixty years of age, married to an accountant, eleven children ranging from thirty-two to twelve years. Usai lost both his parents as a child. With his grandfather (who went on to live until 107) he went to work as a servant-shepherd in remote Barbagia at the age of 14. He returned to Gallura years later with 25 sheep that were all his property.
Today, he owns 200 hectares of pasture, and leases as many, 2000 milk sheep producing 300,000 liters of milk, 60,000 kilos of cheese, 250 cows, 50 goats, 30 horses, hundreds of pigs. The whole business, which includes a butchery, employs fifteen people and is worth a few million euros. In addition to a punitive work schedule since he was young, he followed two rules in life. One he heard from his grandfather: "Remember you have to buy either gold or land", while the second he teaches to his children: "Value means your customers and the quality of your product." With the crisis of tertiary sector, the primary sector is back in fashion: with financial markets at historical lows, ownership of the land goes back to its former status, not only in an economic sense but in a traditional sense. A brilliant agriculture minister, active farmers' associations, firms run by young agricultural entrepreneurs, new modes of distribution such as "farmers' markets" which match producers' supply with consumer demand and yield significant savings, a renewed attention to service and product traceability, heightened interest in horticulture and organic vegetable gardens, which Michelle Obama has made highly fashionable, all these elements are driving a return to basics that is boosting the fortunes of the agricultural sector.