the battle between the members – Corriere.it

Terrepadane, an agricultural consortium based in Piacenza, with a turnover of over 250 million euros in 2022, risks being placed in receivership by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy at the end of a legal battle between the members for control of the top management of the cooperative company. Battle that sees contrappors in the backgroundi on the one hand the Confcooperative headed by Maurizio Gardini, sided with the current president of Terrepadane, Marco Crotti, and on the other Uecoop, chaired by the leader of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, against. On July 24, the proposal for a receivership will be discussed in the Central Commission for Cooperatives, a consultative body of the ministry led by Adolfo Urso. The Department of Enterprises, in its capacity as supervisor of the cooperatives, has the power to arrange for their commissioning.

The ruling of the court of Bologna

The dispute, which has been dragging on for two years and has already seen an arbitration award in favor of the current Terrepadane top management, two ministerial inspections which ended instead against and an appeal by the shareholders close to Coldiretti to the Bologna court, which will be pronounced on August 3, formally concerns the regularity of the meeting which on May 19, 2021 elected Crotti and the board of directors. But essentially it concerns the future of Terrepadane, with members close to Coldiretti in favor of the Italian Agricultural Consortia project, the giant of the North-East which has already absorbed numerous agricultural consortia of the old Federconsorzi, and the current top management, supported by Confcooperative, who oppose it in the name of the company’s decision-making autonomy. The ministry has decided to go ahead with the commissioner, on the strength of an opinion from the state attorney’s office. Crotti, on the other hand, hopes that at least the ruling of the Bologna court will be awaited before any decision. In any case, he has just written to the ministry warning him not to proceed with the commissioner, against which he is already ready to appeal to the TAR. The battle continues.