Masseria Fornara

Region: Calabria

Company name: F.lli Perciaccante Agricultural Company

Location: Contrada Garda – Cassano allo Jonio (Cosenza)

Historical context and birth of the company

The Agricultural Company F.lli Perciaccante srl, was established in 2008 with headquarters in Cassano allo Ionio by the brothers Alfonso, Elio and Matteo in order to give continuity and generational change to the farm born in the first half of the 19th century with the progenitor Giovambattista .
The company until the 1970s had as its cultivation addresses cereal growing, olive growing and breeding of beef cattle, sheep and horses. With the entry into the company of Pietro, father of the members of the Company, there was a cultural evolution, the breeding of beef cows was converted into a dairy cow breeding, the first peach and clementine plants were planted and in 1983 the first 15 hectares of rice fields were sown.
In the early 2000s it was decided to close the supply chain by packaging the rice produced by the company under the “Masseria Fornara” brand. The product has obtained a high level of approval from consumers, such as to lead to processing and marketing the entire farm production in about 10 years as well as buying from local farmers.
Over the years, the rice “Masseria Fornara” has received numerous awards and mentions including the “Foodies award” of the Gambero Rosso magazine, aimed at companies in Italy that pursue quality paths and above all the registration to the publication “The families of Riso ”among the 15 most representative families of rice in Italy.

Sybaris was the largest city of Magna Graecia which lived its maximum splendor between 700 and 450 BC. City devoted above all to trade and agriculture.
Recent studies believe that the rice was imported from the East by Alexander the Great to Sicily and Calabria. The marshy conformation of the land ensured the adaptation of the rice to Sybaris.
Rice cultivation in Sibari reappeared in the 1960s when some local entrepreneurs, to exploit the brackish soils, resumed cultivation which over the years has grown to around 650 hectares of rice.
The brackish nature of the soil has meant that the rice of Masseria Fornara brings with it a flavor that is difficult to find in the other rice.

For all the terminologies used in olive growing go to our GLOSSARY

• Gambero Rosso Foodies Award