Let's discover the Riso Goio brand: here is our interview

Riso Goio is a &' company located in the Baraggia Vercellese, in particular in the town of Rovasenda, which has been producing PDO rice since 1929.

Just in 1929, a visionary, Ernesto Goio, who until then had worked as a farmer for the Counts of Rovasenda, began to rent agricultural land in the Baraggia Vercelli, clay, not fertile and still to be reclaimed. With his hard work and savings, Ernesto converted moors and uncultivated pastures to rice cultivation, continuing to buy more and more land. Over time, he managed to buy part of the land and the Cascina San Felice. Later in the 1950s, his son Pietro joined the company and thanks to him it was possible to increase the areas used for cultivation and to buy Cascina Collobiè with its land. Now in the company c&' it is the third generation, Emanuele, Pietro's son, and thanks to him in 2007 the European award “Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese PDO Rice” was obtained. With their son Edoardo as a salesman, the fourth generation is also preparing to enhance what has been achieved so far.
Riso Goio 1929 is therefore a dream that has been carried on by four generations, who have always worked to sell what they produce, diversifying themselves by the quality of their productions.

We like these realities, these producers of unique, certified and award-winning delicacies: they are real treasures embedded in our Peninsula between seas and mountains and in the most remote streets of villages and countryside. We don't stop to experience only their products, but we want to discover more closely the protagonists of this brand. That's why we sent some questions to those who manage communication with us.

Stay with us and get to know Riso Goio: read the answers!

• Who are we talking to?
  I'm Edoardo Goio, sales manager.
  
• Is the company family run? For how many generations and from what year exactly?
  The company founded its origins in 1929, is completely family-run and we have already reached the fourth generation.
  
• Who was the founder? What was the founder's education or what is the work and professional branch from which he came if different from the current one?
  The company was founded in 1929 by Ernesto Goio. His job was to factor in the Counts of Rovasenda.
  
• What is the real reason or the triggering fact behind the birth of this company and when did it happen?
  Honestly, I don't know what prompted my great-grandfather Ernesto to found our company, I believe that as a visionary he was he had captured something from these lands when at the time even rice was not cultivated. At his young age, when he was working as a farmer in the Conti di Rovasenda company, at a certain point he decided to invest his earnings in land. Every time he had a little money, he bought land and shortly thereafter our company was founded, which at the time was the largest and most important in the area. The fundamental thing was that he had been one of the architects of the Reclamation of the Biella and Vercelli Baraggia, going so far as to create rice fields by clearing various lands and building 3 dams to convey water from the Sesia river coming from Monte Rosa, through a system of artificial channels to the Baraggia to create the irrigation network necessary for the cultivation of rice. Thanks to all this, with the encounter of the spring water of Monte Rosa, with the hard and clayey soil of the Baraggia and the Mediterranean currents, in 2007 the European Commission came to grant the PDO to Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese rice because of its superior and inimitable organoleptic properties.
  As I said before, I don't know what my great-grandfather had guessed at the time, but he was right and maybe he had already understood everything: he was able to see 78 years ahead. Unfortunately, he passed away too soon, but I am very proud of him because he left this wonderful legacy to his beloved family.
  
• What is your relationship with the land of origin and its typicality? And why do you want to tell them with your products?
  Our relationship with the land of origin is very close because we give it enormous value, we treat it with love and respect, so much so that we have decided to specialize in a single variety, choosing the one that best represents it and that more than any other in this land gives the best. When cultivated here it becomes unique, it changes completely: this variety is the S. Andrea DOP of Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese.
  
• What was the first product you created?
  S. Andrea DOP of Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese.
  
• What is the product that today, on the other hand, do you consider “top”?
  S. Andrea DOP of Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese.
  
• And what is the product that in the entire history of the company has most carried with it the beating heart, philosophy and soul of the company itself?
  Always S. Andrea DOP from Baraggia Biellese and Vercellese.
  
• Let's talk about today: how big has the company grown since its inception? Can we get some numbers?
  Unfortunately, for various reasons, the company has reduced the arable area compared to the beginning, reducing hectares and production, now we have reached an annual production of 4500 quintals.
  
• Right now: more tradition or more innovation?
  Our company has a continuous link between innovation and tradition, in fact we have a cultivation method that makes us unique and that combines ancient cultivation techniques (crop rotations) with innovative techniques (dry planting).
  
• What was the most important evolution of the company to get it to what it is today?
  Surely the turning point was when we opened the brand in 2015 (Riso Goio 1929) and as simple producers we started to market our rice, precisely for the sake of enhancement, so we removed ourselves from the paddy rice market, selling ourselves directly and giving us the right value.
  
• Speaking instead of the future: what tomorrow will the company wait for? Are there any changes or some new evolutionary process planned?
  I expect to make our brand grow a lot and if a few things go well, we'll have our rice mill so that we can grow, process, package and sell our rice ourselves.
  
• Are you planning to create new products?
  Usually every year we create something new, but we always remain faithful to our variety, which we offer in different formats. We have a line of risottos always ready with our rice in which we add some new recipes. Our last product with which we will soon come out are triangles of our rice combined with 4 legumes, which recreate the potato effect with a unique crunch, not fried, with very few calories, gluten-free, vegan, rich in fiber and protein.
  
• Having focused on Spaghetti & Mandolino, how important is online sales for you, what was your relationship in the past with this sales channel and how do you see it in the future?
  We have always frowned on &' e-commerce, because we consider it a useful tool for making our products known nationally and internationally. These days, due to the pandemic, we have noticed an increase in this sales channel and we think that the future will now lead to a further increase.
  
• Value: what was it, what is it today and what will it be in the future for your company?
  Since the past, our company has had a high value d&' identity, which it has always maintained, but today I believe that we could raise it even higher because by selling our rice directly to our brand we can identify
ourselves more.

S&M