Company

The structure

Two divisions at the service of quality

The commercial department feeds from two large product divisions: gardening and agriculture.

The gardening division offers a wide range of fertilisers in liquid and powder form, tablets, slow release feeds, granules; seeds and fertilisers for lawns, special products for specific needs. And also medical-surgical facilities, products for ornamental plants, products for the protection of vegetables and ornamental plants, and other various products, such as green enhancing, leaf shine and preserving solutions. The agricultural division offers very high quality products: liquid or powder fertilisers, simple and NPK, single and complex meso and micro elements, humic extracts, organic and organic-mineral fertilisers, plant growth regulators. And also a range of organic products to meet the needs of professional organic farmers, and a wide range of specific products for other harvest care and protection requirements. To help the user to make the most of our products, technical supports are also available for viewing and downloading from our website.

Our laboratories and our research activities

The Cifo quality comes to life in our laboratories, where a qualified team of researches develops new formulas, whilst at the same time checking, improving and monitoring existing ones. Our laboratories and research departments are extremely important for our activity, as they provide an essential contribution to quality control during the whole production process, through analyses of the raw materials used, as well as of the semi-finished and finished products.

Our production and state of the art equipment

Our production takes place in our plant, using state of the art equipment to ensure a strictly controlled production process.

Collaborations

Organizations and Universities

Since the beginning, Cifo has always given the utmost importance to research and experimentation. Today these factors are becoming increasingly more important. Thanks to its continuous investments in these sectors, Cifo is always successful in presenting the market with the most innovative products, capable of meeting the needs of the specialists of the sector.

In order to come up with quality products capable of fully satisfying the consumer, during the years Cifo has established strong research partnerships with prestigious national bodies and Universities, carrying out extensive experiments and testing the products on different cultivations at the main production facilities across the country.

Below is a list of the main Bodies and Universities:

• Arboriculture department of the University of Bologna.
• Department of agricultural and environmental sciences of the University of Bologna.
• C.R.P.V. (Vegetal Production Research Centre) of Cesena.
• ASTRA “M. Neri” of Imola, Interprovincial centre for agricultural experimentation.
• Centre for agricultural support and experimentation of Albenga (Savona).
• “Martorano 5” experimental company of Cesena.
• Centre for agricultural and forestry experimentation of Laimburg (BZ).
• Agricultural Institute of S. Michele all’Adige – Experimental Centre (TN).
• Department for agronomy, forestry and territory management of the University of Turin.
• Experimental fruit growing institute, Rome, and S.O.P of Pergine (TN).
• Institute of fruit and vine growing of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore University of Piacenza.
• CRA viticulture experimental institute of Turi (BA).
• BETA, Italian beet growing research and experimentation society.
• S.O.P. cereal growing experimental institute of Foggia.
• S.En.Fi.Mi.Zo. department of the University of Palermo.
• Department of agricultural biotechnologies of the University of Padua.
• CRA (Council for agricultural research and experimentation), fruit growing research unit of Caserta.
• CNR (National research centre) IVALSA of Sesto Fiorentino (FI)
• U.O. Fruit growing experimental institute of Verona.

Quality Environment and Safety

In 1999, the Management of the company decided to move towards Quality Management System certification (UNI EN ISO 9001) as a mean to include Total Quality as part of the company culture. In practical terms, this translates into strict planning and control and continuous improvement of operations, production processes and decision making procedures. To obtain this result, Cifo S.p.A. enrolled one of the most renowned certifying bodies in Italy: Certiquality.

In 2001 Cifo obtained the environmental certification. Complying with international standard UNI EN ISO14001 meant the implementation of an Environmental Management System that through a well organised and systematic approach aimed at continuous improvement would give the possibility of assessing the specific environmental performance levels of the activities. The Environmental Management System guarantees that the necessary checks are in place to make sure that all company processes are carried out in controlled conditions, so that the commitments specifically outlined in the policy disclosed to all stakeholders (staff, customers, suppliers, distributors, public bodies and category associations, etc.) are met.

Moreover, for the Management Team and all stakeholders compliance with the BS OHSAS 18001 standards demonstrates the need to define a method to check that the production processes are and remain consistent with the requirement of ensuring the health and safety of Cifo personnel.

By strictly adhering to the three management systems, Cifo makes everyone clearly aware of its decision to manufacture its products in full respect of the environment and mankind, continuing to organise its processes with a commitment to Quality. As recognition of the results achieved, in 2003 Cifo obtained the Excellence certificate, becoming one of the first companies in Italy to obtain certification in the three systems.

Certifications

Distribution

As a guarantee of maximum quality and professionalism, Cifo products are distributed across the nation through a capillary network only consisting of specialist points of sale.

Cifo also exports its product range, both in Europe and further afield.
The commercial network consists of sole agents and highly qualified technical personnel capable of working side by side with the customer, offering solutions for every problem related to the agricultural and gardening world.

Export

We also take advantage of a capillary distribution network that promotes our products outside of our domestic market. In the last few years, we have been particularly successful in strengthening our shares in the Arabian countries of the Mediterranean region, and extend our presence to new markets. At the moment, our products are distributed in almost all the countries of the Middle East: Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus.

Our presence is also significant in Eastern Europe, South East Asia and India. We are working on new projects in the Dominican Republic and Australia, and for the expansion of our customer portfolio in all South American emerging countries.

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