It was the British economist EF Schumacher who wrote that small is beautiful and a young firm in Italy is illustrating the concept while helping migrants at the same time.
Funky Tomato was set up earlier this year by a group of farmers in the southern areas of Puglia and Basilicata simply to make passata from locally-grown tomatoes.
The company’s ten employees include four migrants. Instead of the often exploitative working conditions the bedevil migrants, with Funky Tomato they are given proper contracts for 39 hours a week and paid a decent wage. And they are not just picking tomatoes, but deployed other areas such as marketing and administration as well. “It's about giving people work and teaching them new skills.” Paolo Russo, one of the company founders said.
Although the contracts are short-term because of the seasonal nature of the work, they are longer than 52 days which entitles workers to a type of unemployment benefit when they are not working.
They earn €6.40 per hour, a far cry from the under-the-table deals in which migrant workers can be paid as little as €15 for a 12-hour stretch of picking fruit or vegetables.
“It's not just about making a profit, it's about showing that you don't have to enslave people to make the southern Italian economy work.
"Our goal was to find an alternative to the illegal hiring of migrants arriving on our territory looking for a job", Russo explained.
In southern Italy, the supply chain for tomatoes involves thousands of farmers and pickers and hundreds of processing facilities. The annual trade is worth between €1.5 and €2 billion.
Funky Tomato faces unyielding competition. Priced at €1.70 per kilo, the “high quality artisanal” passata, according to Russo, it is pricier than what he calls “industrial” products.
But a client base through is developing, some encouraged by discounts for advance payments and the company is already selling to restaurants and independent food stores across Italy.
Part of their start-up money was raised through an Italian crowdfunding platform.
“At the moment it's a drop in the ocean,” said Mamadou Dia, a 39-year-old migrant. “But today we are speaking about Funky Tomato – but tomorrow we could be speaking about Funky Oil or Funky Wine. We're trying to create a network across Italy.”
