APCOM

Milano's city council's committee has approved a resolution that creates the 'Borsa agroalimentare telematica mondiale' (Bat), a virtual commercial platform whose aim is to bring the producers close to the market, reduce the costs of transaction and transport and open the markets to smaller subjects. The measure puts in practice the goals of an agreement protocol signed by the city council, Borsa merci telematica italiana (BMTI) and the Chamber of commerce within the context of Milano's candidature as host of Expo 2015.

The project was presented yesterday by vice-mayor Riccardo De Corato and councilor for Work and Employment Policies Andrea Mascaretti. The initiative, as De Corato points out, is in line with the issue 'Feed the planet, energy for life', the one chosen by Milano for its candidature to the Expo: 'Through this theme and also through the realization' of the Borsa telematica - says the vice-mayor - we intend to contribute to the development of a big project of international solidarity. Thanks to Bat we'll connect the world's most positive realities, even the farthest ones. Besides, we'll leave to our city an invaluable heritage from the cultural, infrastructural, financial and environmental point of view'.

The new mechanism which will rule the exchanges and the prices' formation of agricultural products hopes to become a benchmark for the Mediterranean and European area . Thanks to the video market it will be possible to determine the prices in real-time, guarantee efficiency and rationality to transactions (which will take place at a continual auction). It will also be possible to invest on future productions and choose harvests before they are ready: in this way many countries will increase their chances to export their products at lower prices.