Bottlenecks mark the start of the season for Italian lettuce

Already at the start of the season for Italian lettuce for the winter of 2023/2024, there were major bottlenecks. Normally, the lettuce is always ready to harvest in the last week of October, but this year the start of the season was rather difficult. "September was consistently nice and warm, October, on the other hand, was very mixed, with heavy rains and then high temperatures. Accordingly, the open field lettuce was consistently of poor quality," says Peter Mair, sales manager at the Italian cooperative Gruppo Mec. Even in the foil houses, the lettuce suffered from fluctuating temperatures and the high humidity. Mair: "In some cases, the varieties chosen were not the right ones for these temperatures. The crops were exposed to high levels of insect infestation and fungal diseases. The disease pressure was so high that the goods were not fit for exporting. Meanwhile, German domestic production increased earlier than the previous year end, which is why a corresponding supply gap ...