ABOUT US
"We aim to specialize further in the production and offering, year-round, of a wide range of vegetable seedlings for professional farmers and hobbyists alike. To achieve this goal sooner and more effectively, to our existing over 10,000 m² of corrugated iron and ferroglass greenhouses, we have added a new, modern 5,000 m² ferroglass-polycarbonate greenhouse. We've been called foolish for investing during these times of crisis, when everyone clings tightly to whatever money they have, if any. But we made this significant investment only after a careful examination of numerous economic and social factors." Optimistic, yet prudent, are Umberto Salvatore and Tibello Oddone, known as Pasquale, owners of Someps sas of Lucera (Fg), a greenhouse business dedicated to over 1.5 hectares to the production of vegetable seedlings for transplantation and cyclamen plants in pots. "We started from our actual situation: we have a strong demand for vegetable seedlings from customers, which today we sometimes cannot meet," says Salvatore. "And such high demand does not surprise us. We operate in Capitanata, the most vegetable-oriented province in all of Italy: where else can vegetables be grown if not in this plain? The economic crisis is felt, and the consumption of vegetables shows a certain decline, but somehow everyone needs to eat, and then the statistics do not take into account the production for self-consumption, a phenomenon that is growing very strongly to reduce food costs in families, and we verify this firsthand because many of our customers, increasingly, are hobbyists, that is, simple people who buy a few seedlings of various species and grow them in their family gardens."
ALSO FOR HOBBYISTS
Without neglecting professional farmers, who still make up the majority of the clientele, Someps works diligently and with extreme care for hobbyists. "These customers," Oddone explains, "purchase seedlings primarily at neighborhood markets, much less so at nurseries. This is not by chance because, needing not one or more full trays of 200 or more seedlings, but just a few seedlings for different vegetable species, nursery workers do not want to serve them, meaning they do not want to cut one or more rows from the trays for each of them, an operation that would lead to lost time and increased costs. We, on the other hand, fully meet their needs; we take the trouble to cut the trays according to the individual hobbyist's wishes. However, unlike small nurseries that supply neighborhood markets using seeds for hobbyists, which are notoriously of poor quality, and therefore offer subpar seedlings, we use high-quality seeds: in practice, we provide both hobbyists and professional farmers with the same seedlings, equipped with phytosanitary and varietal certification, much more resistant to diseases and productive. Customers have understood the difference and are willing to pay a bit more. Initially, it was tough, but now they greatly appreciate our availability."
HIGH TECHNOLOGY
Meanwhile, Oddone emphasizes, "to the seriousness that distinguishes us, we have not overlooked the technical aspects of the new greenhouse, a structure with lateral glass fillings and a polycarbonate roof. Polycarbonate ensures the same transparency and internal brightness as glass (and more than double that allowed by polyester corrugation), but it is used instead of glass due to its lightness (about 10 times lighter than glass), ease of installation, high breaking point, low thermal dispersion (the lowest compared to other coverings), and resistance to weather conditions. And, to mention something about the modernity of the new greenhouse, the irrigation and fertigation, carried out with mobile sprinklers, will be managed through a computerized remote control that ensures freedom of movement, efficiency, and productivity. It is a radio transmission device that receives and transmits in real-time, displaying all the information and commands from the electrical panel on the screen. A single remote control can manage up to 99 sprinklers within an operational distance of 200m."
OUR PRODUCTION
