When tradition meets transparency: how Oropan uses ISCC PLUS to prove authenticity
In Altamura, in Italy’s Puglia region, bread-making has been part of local culture for centuries. When Vito Forte founded Oropan, he built on this tradition, producing bread from locally sourced durum wheat using techniques rooted in the region’s baking heritage. Today, Oropan combines this craftsmanship with modern production, supplying thousands of retailers across Italy and exporting to over 27 countries worldwide while remaining committed to its products’ origins. ISCC PLUS helps the company translate its heritage into transparent, verifiable supply chain information from the field to the table.
Building the business case for ISCC PLUS: proving authenticity
For Oropan, sustainability is not a new initiative but an extension of long-established values. The company has always placed importance on the quality and origin of its raw materials, particularly the durum wheat sourced from Puglia that defines its products.
As customers and retail partners increasingly seek evidence behind sustainability claims, Oropan saw an opportunity to complement its heritage with internationally recognised certification. ISCC PLUS helps the company demonstrate that every loaf of bread is the result of a responsible, sustainable and ethical supply chain, from the cultivation of raw materials through to the finished product.
Bringing certification to consumers
Certification can serve many business-to-business purposes: to support internal processes, business relationships, compliance, or voluntary commitments. Oropan has taken the additional step of making certification visible to consumers.
Oropan communicates its ISCC PLUS certification directly on product packaging, including on new product lines, and sees this approach as resonating with both buyers and consumers. Fundamental to this is the quality of its products and raw materials, whose journey the company can trace from the field to the supermarket shelf.
Further, Oropan informs about its certification through materials like the company profile, or on its Forte brand’s website, all with the goal of inviting consumers to learn more about the benefits of certification. It also uses social media channels and trade events to explain how certified sourcing contributes to transparent and responsible bread production.
This approach reflects Oropan’s belief that certification creates the greatest value when it becomes part of the conversation with customers. Behind this communication lies a fully traceable supply chain that connects every stage of production. From the cultivation of 100% Apulian wheat, through storage at Pineta, milling at Molino Mininni, and finally baking at Oropan, each step provides verified information demonstrating the origin of the raw materials and the integrity of the final product. This allows Oropan to move beyond merely telling retailers and consumers that its bread is both environmentally and socially responsibly sourced – it can demonstrate it.
Looking ahead
Sustainability expectations continue to evolve, and Oropan sees verified environmental information as increasingly important. Through the ISCC GHG Emissions add-on, the company is strengthening its greenhouse gas reporting and supporting its broader ambition to become carbon neutral by 2029.
The company also expects demand for certified and traceable raw materials to continue growing, making transparent supply chain information an important competitive advantage for food producers.
Key takeaway for processors
Oropan’s experience suggests that companies should approach certification as a long-term commitment that extends across the entire supply chain. Success requires more than meeting technical requirements. It means aligning sustainability objectives with suppliers, building transparent data management systems, and preparing to communicate the value of certification to both business partners and end consumers. For Oropan, these efforts have strengthened long-term credibility while creating new opportunities to differentiate its products in the market.
Authenticity, along with mastery and well-being, is one of the core values of Oropan’s Forte brand. For Oropan, authenticity is deeply tied to its founder’s history, its land, Altamura, and its bread-making tradition. By combining decades of bread-making heritage with transparent ISCC PLUS certification, the company demonstrates that sustainability and authenticity are strongest when they can be verified.
ISCC PLUS for food and feed
All sustainably grown agricultural products and their processed forms can become certified under ISCC PLUS.
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