ANSAmed
Head of Tuscan company against the tide in aftermath of Paris.
Innovation for health, reads the slogan and without fomenting further controvery, Valentino Mercati, Mister Aboca, explains his choice.
Swimming against the tide, while the Maghreb region becomes a land of danger and in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, an unholy land even for tourism, the
chief of the Tuscan company which provides the health industry with molecular plant extracts derived from organic farming, chooses Morocco.
Born in Arezzo in 1939, Mercati is not new to sursprising turns: in 1978 he left an established car shop to plant 800 hectares of officinal plants in Valtiberina. That was the origin of Aboca, nowadays it boasts 800 employees and renevues worth 120 million.
Now he wants to establish a Moroccan Aboca. Why Morocco? “People who know me are aware that I did everything against the tide, but always at the right time. I’m not crazy. I’ve been studying Morocco for three years and I’ve been exploring the possibilities of finding fields at those latitudes to continue to guarantee the quality of raw materials. Now I am close to the results I was seeking” .
Morocco hosts many companies such as yours, it has a great herbal tradition. Is that why you came here? “There are three main reasons which brought me to Morocco. First, it’s a country that said no to GMOs and this is a great advantage as a starting point.
Don’t just think of the land, dangers can also come from animals feeding on GMO foodstuffs.
A second favourable condition is the climate, that in some areas has the ideal temperatures for the growth of subtropical plants such as aloe for example. Third advantage, which could also be viewed as the first, Morocco has a stable political situation, a well entrenched monarchy and it is a country inspiring confidence to those wishing to invest in it”.
You believe too many pesticides are employed in Italy, but are you sure the situation in Morocco is any better? “To be safe we need great spaces, first of all. At least 500 hectares, so that they can be protected by external pollutants.
I looked for them in Tuscany too, but it’s hard, I need big surfaces in order to cultivate with state-of-the art agricoltural techniques; then, and this is even harder, we need fields that have not been contaminated by GMOs nor by chemical pollutants.
In the last three years, we looked for these fields in Morocco, in the south, in the area of Marrakesh and now Agadir.
We are finally there, close to the sea and the climate is perfect for our purposes.
I already have a team of pharmacists and botanists working for me. Soon we’ll be able to begin cultivating”.
