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Profile
Paolo Bruni: President of Fedagri-Confcooperative, the main Italian organisation for agri-food cooperatives which comprises 3,600 cooperatives and a total turnover of 25 billion euros
Paolo Bruni was born in Portomaggiore, in the Ferrara province, on 26 July 1959.
The origins of his family date back to an ancient stock of farmers. In his youth, he worked on the family farm, making the most of his agronomy studies.
Together with his younger brother, he owns "L’erba del Persico", an agricultural and commercial business working in Italy and Romania in the agricultural and dried products sector.
He holds the position of President of Apo Conerpo, a fruit and vegetable producer organisation which, as a leader at national and European level, brings together 10,000 farms through a cooperative system mainly from Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Puglia.
He is President of Confcooperative Ferrara.
He is President of the C.S.O. (Centro servizi ortofrutticoli), a firm that deals with statistics, logistics and value on international markets.
He is Vice-President of Conserve Italia (a business comprising the brands Yoga, Derby, Valfrutta, Cirio-De Rica).
He is President of Conserves France, an industrial canned and preserved goods firm based in Nimes, France.
He is President of the transnational firm at European level F.I.N.A.F. (First International Associations Fruit).
He is a board member of the cooperative Patfrut which has over 1,000 agricultural producers as members.
Since 2007, he has been the first Vice-President of Cogeca, the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the European Union, with headquarters situated in Brussels.
Since July 2003, he has been the national President of Fedagri-Confcooperative which, out of the whole agri and agri-food cooperative sector, is the largest Italian organisation in terms of cooperatives and number of members, as well as global turnover from associated organisations working across all production sectors (production-value-processing and marketing) with a total sum of 24 billion euros.
Since November 2005, he has been Vice-President of Cogeca, the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives in the European Union.
Since 2007, he has been a member of the professional chamber of the EU's Enterprise Policy Group (EPG).
Since April 2006, he has been an adviser to the Banca Popolare di Roma.
Since 1991, he has been commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
During recent years, he has been committed to promoting agri-food cooperatives as an eminent representative taking the image of the agri-food sector to uppermost heights, thanks to several interviews during televised emissions devoted to agriculture, appearing on programmes such as Porta a Porta, Uno Mattina or even Linea Verde, to name but a few.
In September 2006, he was awarded the prestigious prize “Verdicchio D’Oro”.
He is married to Paola and is the father of two daughters, Carlotta and Eleonora, aged 16 and 19 respectively.