La realtà del settore lapideo nel bacino estrattivo del Verbano Cusio Ossola

The dimensional stones (serizzi, beole, granites and marbles) quarries in Verbano Cusio Ossola area (VCO – North East of Piedmont) are 58; there are also 2 mines for the recovery of granites wastes, to treat in order to obtain feldrspar and quarts for ceramic and glasses industries. The quarry managers often own also a working plant in which it is possible to cut and work the exploited material. There are also different transformation plants, not strictly connected to quarries, in which it is possible to find both local material and national or international dimensional stones. The total number of the working plants is 120. In VCO quarry basin there are two different trade associations: this occurrence points out a clear split in the dimensional stones sector, that is not useful nor profitable for the local industry. Another distinctiveness related to the VCO stone sector is the freezing prizes trend: during the last decade the prizes of finished products and semimanufactured products have been blocked with a consequent saturation of the market. The absence of a closed and compact stone sector representation, which could support and promote local materials for private and public utilization, is a damn for VCO companies; in fact it encouraged the entry of foreign material in local and regional stone market. Furthermore there was discovered the necessity of a certificated product quality guarantee (eg. CE or DOP brands for local stones). For what concerns the CE brand, recently it was build a financed a new laboratory (Centro Servizi Lapiedo VCO – in Crevoladossola – VB) for dimensional stones certification; on the other side there are different studies and researches in progress in order to obtain the DOP brand on serizzi, beole, local granites and marbles. In such a way it is possible to outline a local survey characterised by a many-sided and split reality: on one side big companies continue to grow in local and regional/national market, on the other side the little companies “try to float in the hard stone ocean”, always in competitions with new and cheaper products from foreign countries. The first suggestion is to aim at a one, only and strong trade association, which could protect local products, working on incisive marketing promotion (eg. realisation of innovative, elitist or “niche” products) and on the valorisation of the whole stone resources (first quality products, second and third quality products, second raw materials, etc…).