ITALY WINS IN SPAIN: RECEIVED THREE AWARDS AT THEINTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “IFAMA 2024”
On June 17th-20th, 2024, the conference “International Food And Agribusiness Management Association – IFAMA 2024” was held in Almeria (Spain), in which different Italian Ph.D students, researchers and professors have participated, especially from the University of Foggia and also from the University of Palermo, the University of Bologna, the University of Salento and the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”.
The schedule of IFAMA 2024 included 4 intensive working days including the Academic Symposium and Business Forum, plus one day dedicated to the technical visit at the local companies. During the first day of the conference, dedicated to the dissemination of research to the academic community, various research works were presented, including papers, extended abstracts, and posters. Specifically, on the first day, a session called “Blockchain Technology and Innovation” was held alongside other research sessions. This session, coordinated by Prof. Mariantonietta Fiore (University of Foggia), focused entirely on the application of blockchain technology and the innovations and implications it creates in the agrifood sector. It has to be noted that this topic is perfectly in line with the interests of the W.E. B.E.S.T. PRIN project.
View of intensive agriculture and greenhouse cultivation in Almeria (photo source: https://agrocode.com/)
The conference was officially launched by Prof. Mariantonietta Fiore (University of Foggia) and by Prof. Loïc Sauvée (Institut Polytechnique UniLaSalle), both were Co-Chairs of the Symposium, with the presentation entitled as “Almeria agribusiness ecosystem: Innovative and sustainable?”
both Loïc Sauvée and Mariantonietta Fiore have been awarded for their outstanding efforts in organizing the sessions at the IFAMA 2024 Symposium. Their dedication to advancing the dialogue on global food and agribusiness management is truly inspiring.
The second day of the conference was launched by prof. Tonelli from the University of Cagliari, keynote speaker of the Symposium, who presented a research done in the frame of the W.E. B.E.S.T. PRIN project entitled as “Blockchain and Made in Italy”. He introduced how technology is revolutionizing daily life, included e-commerce, the management of identity and the exchange of public services, creating new exciting perspectives of innovative businesses and opportunities of Italian and European trading. This session aimed to share the latest trends and in-depths about the use of blockchain to authenticate the origin of the product in the supply chain, focusing on the certification of the origin of goods for national products as “Made in Italy”.
At the same time, during the first two days of the conference, the “Student case competition” was held, a practical resolution of a case study on a theme of agrifood business in which an Italian team participated in the “Early Career Professionals” category, coordinated by the University of Foggia (Prof. Mariantonietta Fiore, Department of Economics) and composed by 4 researchers belonging to the research group of the W.E. B.E.S.T. PRIN project. The protagonists of this competition have obtained a great result challenging more than 20 teams from all over the world, succeeding to overcome the preliminary phase, but stopping in the semi-final phase. The Case Competition team as well as the entire group from the University of Foggia, was supported by two sponsors, “Piana Paradiso s.r.l. di P. Zullo” and “Antica Tradizione s.r.l. di Marco Guerra”, which donated the gadgets like backpacks and pills worn by participants during the conference.
Within the framework of the Academic Symposium, the aforementioned participants also contributed with numerous works, in the form of posters and presentations:
- Does BCT change relate directly to the intervention in the wineries? M.R. Maschio, L.S. Alaimo, M. Fiore, A. Galati
- Value-belief and value-identity norms in ethical food consumption: investigating the influence of worker-friendly labels in Italy. C. Mirabella, V. Borsellino, A. Galati, E. Schimmenti, F. Caracciolo
- How an advising good practice in short food supply chain management becomes a golden case: the COREnet project experience. F. Colantuono, A. Romagno. G. De Pascale, M. Riefolo, P. La Sala
- NFT – Soul bound tokens for winery reputation. R. Tonelli, A. Tiddia, A. Pinna, M.I. Lunesu, G. Cherchi, D. Bentivoglio, G. Chiaraluce, G. Staffolani, G. Zonneveld, G. Rafaiani, A. Finco
- Biosecurity in the swine livestock: a state of art in the economic field. V. Suprani, A.G. Paolo; A. Maurizio, C. Massimo Making fisheries sustainable: digital transition for blue economy. M. Amoruso, A.M. Pacifico, P.P. Miglietta, L. Agnusdei
- Distributed ledger technologies and sustainable development goals. R. Rana, N. Adamashvili, C. Tricase, R. Pareschi
Two of the above-mentioned research works ranked first place. Specifically, for the Poster category, the first place out
of 16 is “Making fisheries sustainable: digital transition for blue economy”, presented by Mauro Amoruso who is a Ph.D student at the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, while for the Paper category, “Does BCT change relate directly to the intervention in the wineries?” ranked among the top 18; but Claudio Mirabella’s paper, a
Ph.D student from the University of Palermo, ranked first out of 180 papers, with the research work “Value-belief and value-identity norms in ethical food consumption: investigating the influence of worker-friendly labels in Italy”.
The winners were rewarded on the final day and Prof. Fiore was also rewarded for her position in the symposium of the conference and for her engagement and dedication to the realization of the IFAMA 2024 conference.
The event represented an important occasion to disseminate the results of the W.E. B.E.S.T. PRIN project, thanks to the contributions and active participation of different partners of the project present at IFAMA 2024, giving interesting input to different participants, due to the relevance of the topics proposed for innovation and the sustainability of the agrifood sector, the main focus of the conference.
Furthermore, it is necessary to underline the important aspect regarding international networking (representatives from 5 continents and over 40 countries participated) which allowed different participants from the University of Foggia to interact with experts from prestigious foreign universities, discussing common aspects of research, enriching their know-how and extending their contacts for future collaborations.
