Benedetto Coppo

When you buy a pack of Ecorì rice, you are buying into a story made of people, of fathers who then become grandfathers and teach the trade to their grandchildren.

Benedetto Coppo, an agronomist specializing in rice cultivation and authorized to intermediate agricultural products, is one of those people. Today, he runs the "La Mandria" farm, located in the heart of the Granges. This region also has its own history, which began with the arrival of Cistercian monks from Burgundy who founded the Abbey of Lucedio. "Ora et labora" (pray and work) is the rule of the order, applied with such zeal that it transformed a swampy and uncultivated area into the "Grange" territory, derived from the French term for granaries. It is here that the history of rice cultivation in the Po Valley began around the mid-14th century.

The Coppo family has a long agricultural tradition: six generations in that area of Vercelli between the municipalities of Asigliano, Desana, and Costanzana. There's Uncle Giacomo, now retired but still extremely active; Benedetto with his wife Paola and their children: Giovanni, who graduated from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in Turin and is already involved in the company, and Cristina, who graduated from Bocconi University and is involved in the administrative and financial management of the family business.

Currently, the Coppo family cultivates about 500 hectares of land, 150 of which belong to the Mandria estate. Two-thirds of the area is dedicated to seed rice, which means maximum field cleanliness with an absolute limitation of chemical products, thanks to manual weeding, an old practice still relevant for its invaluable usefulness.