Summer fruit in Italy: Climate, rising production costs, and falling consumption threaten the sector

Published 2024년 8월 12일

Tridge summary

Italy's fruit and vegetable production is being severely impacted by unusual weather conditions, including drought in the south and heavy rains in the north, leading to issues with product size, quantity, shelf life, and plant diseases. The country, one of the largest global producers of several fruits and vegetables, is experiencing quality problems and crop failures, with some regions facing challenges like virus attacks, high humidity, and product cracking. Sicily is dealing with the worst water crisis in its history, forcing agricultural companies to abandon orchards. Low summer fruit consumption due to consumer preferences and purchasing power, along with competition from foreign products, are further threatening the industry. The president of the National Fruit Growing Federation of Confagricoltura is calling for policies to protect the supply chain and is seeking immediate interventions and strategic plans.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Severe drought in the South and on the Islands, heavy and prolonged rains in the North. This does not bode well for the Italian fruit and vegetable production, which is worth over 16 billion euros and represents 25% of the total national agricultural production. As for fruit, we are among the largest producers in the world of apples and pears, peaches, apricots, table grapes, melons and kiwis. The climate, however, is affecting the size, quantity, shelf life of the product, in addition to the proliferation of plant diseases. “Melons and watermelons in the North have struggled to reach a good level of quality due to the low temperatures and too much water that accompanied the first part of the summer - underlines the president of the National Fruit Growing Federation of Confagricoltura, Michele Ponso - Peaches and apricots have a decent quality, but we have a high percentage of waste due to the spread of alien insects and fungi”. In Piedmont, there have been strong attacks of the ...

Source: Agricolae