Tradition comes first. The ways of cooking rice, as well as taste, might vary, but rice production and quality ingredients always remain unchanged: love and knowledge of the territory, selection of the best raw materials, as well as maximum accuracy in processing and packaging. On the other hand, for the Turin brand Il Buon Riso, this philosophy embodies the very close relationship with the region of origin, Piedmont. Its products, in addition to being present in most of Italy, have been marketed internationally for a few years, achieving interesting results. The range offered to international markets has recently been expanded by launching the corn and rice line Gallette Bio Gluten-Free sold in 100-gram packaging. These goods are produced only with organic whole corn and whole grain Italian rice, farmed in Italy. Riccardo Traversa, CEO and third generation of the family who founded the company, says: We started our business after the Second World War. At the time, rice on the market was almost exclusively limited to the Arborio variety, yet we focused on the Roma variety, though it was almost unknown. Today, this type of business represents our core business and allows us to be leaders in Piedmont, with a 22% market share, and the third brand among Northwest Italian regions. In order to identify the different rice qualities on the shelves, the company assigns a specific packaging color defining the variety of rice for sale. Red for Roma, pink for Carnaroli, blue for Arborio. The company is currently undergoing package restyling to make product identification even easier.
Tradition and quality: a perfect team
In addition to graphic design, packaging also differs for the innovative food packaging technology, based on vacuum-packed, balanced by filtered and purified nitrogen, the ultimate natural preservative. The yellow corn flour label, La Buona Polenta, a line of La Casalinga flours, as well as low-fat, fiber-rich, rice-flavored, and low-fat maize Gallette have been added to the product range which are ideal for meeting consumers’ healthier expectations. Riccardo Traversa adds: Among the best performing products, we also find La Firma gourmet line, initially addressed only to high-end restaurants, but now also fast growing in the retail channel. These products are meant to promote flavors and premium ingredients such as black and red rice, or Basmati, Vialone Nano, and Bruno rice. This confirms how eager customers are to try out qualitatively superior specialty food and can count overall on a greater knowledge of the category and its peculiarities. Tastes change and flavor culture evolves, therefore besides the traditional Italian rice, La Firma label is all about originality and gourmet creativity.