DIF Publishes Its First ESG Report
DIF Distribuzione Italiana Food presents its first ESG Report, covering 2025. The document marks the beginning of a structured approach to measurement, transparency, and continuous improvement, reflecting a commitment to responsibility towards the food supply chain, businesses, and local communities.
In food distribution, sustainability means looking at how logistics flows are organised, how product integrity is preserved during transport, how service continuity is ensured, how shipment information is managed, and how different companies work together according to shared principles and responsibilities.
This is the perspective behind the first ESG Report by DIF Distribuzione Italiana Food, covering the 2025 financial year. For us, the document is more than a reporting exercise: it is a new tool for understanding the Network, measuring its impact, and identifying, with greater awareness, the areas in which we can continue to improve and evolve.
The Report reflects our commitment to making our operations, the responsibilities we undertake, and the value we create for the Italian agri-food supply chain increasingly transparent.
Responsibility Across the Entire Supply Chain
For DIF, responsibility begins with our distribution model. Our organisation connects food & beverage producers with specialised transport companies through a nationwide network of hubs, transit points, and partners that share procedures, expertise, and quality standards.
This system is designed to meet the needs of the food supply chain, where service quality depends not only on timely deliveries but also on the conditions in which products are handled and the transparency of logistics operations.
Temperature-controlled distribution, strict separation of different types of cargo, and shipment traceability are the core principles guiding the DIF model. These operational practices help preserve the original characteristics of food products, reduce the risk of deterioration, and minimise waste throughout the distribution process.
Sustainability therefore takes on a tangible meaning, closely linked to distribution quality and responsibility towards both producers and consumers.
The Value of a Network That Grows Together
The sustainability of a distribution system also depends on its ability to organise and make effective use of available resources.
The DIF collaborative logistics model is based on the coordination of infrastructure, vehicles, logistics flows, and local expertise. Working as a network makes it possible to streamline connections, optimise routes, and improve load capacity utilisation, creating the conditions to reduce inefficiencies and logistics waste.
Within this system, partner companies maintain their own business identity while contributing their local knowledge and operational expertise to a coordinated nationwide distribution network.
Efficiency and sustainability thus become complementary objectives: making better use of resources helps reduce the impact of distribution activities without compromising service quality or food integrity.
It is also through this ability to bring together businesses, infrastructure, and shared responsibilities that DIF recognises the value of collective growth.
Measuring Today to Guide Tomorrow's Decisions
Launched in 2025, DIF’s ESG reporting journey takes its first structured form in the inaugural Report, published in 2026.
The document provides an overview of the organisation across the environmental, social, and governance dimensions, establishing a baseline for assessing performance and guiding future decisions.
The process also includes an ESG assessment conducted with CRIF, as part of a broader commitment to strengthening transparency and measurability.
As Antonio Cuozzo, Director of DIF Network, explains:
“This first ESG Report allows us to look at our Network with greater awareness. Measuring means understanding where we stand, recognising the responsibilities we share, and identifying areas for improvement. For DIF, sustainability is closely connected to the way we work every day, alongside the companies within our Network, to protect the value of food products.”
The publication of the Report is not an endpoint, but the beginning of a new phase in DIF’s journey, where the expansion of distribution capabilities goes hand in hand with greater attention to resource management, process improvement, and responsibility towards the supply chain.
A commitment consistent with our mission: connecting food production and specialised logistics through a distribution system designed to protect the value of food and people.
Protecting products. Protecting those who consume them.
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