Italian almonds: An SOS from Sicily and an appeal to Masaf

“Italian almond production has reached a point of no return. Thousands of producers from Sicily, Puglia and other regions are facing a crossroads: continue to keep the plants alive, unable to even recover the production costs, or eradicate the fruit of decades of work, sacrifices and investments? The president of the Sicilian Shell Fruit Association and spokesman for the National Shell Fruit Coordination, Ignazio Vassallo, begins with these words, which leave little room for interpretation. Covid and the slow post-pandemic recovery, with stock after stock that has accumulated (an outlet as important as that of weddings and more generally of ceremonies, in fact, has been completely blocked for several months), have become just one of the problems between the many. Because old questions have been joined by new ones. One of the latest seems to be California's increasingly downward pricing policy. The causes of the crisis “What are – asks Vassallo – the causes of this dramatic crisis? ...