The Acli Racale cooperative (Puglia) specialises in the production of potatoes, watermelons and olive oil. The potato campaign usually starts towards the end of February/beginning of March with the first greenhouse early varieties, and then continues with the open field produce from the second half of March until July.
Enzo Manni (in the photo below), sales manager of the cooperative, which commercialises between 25,000 and 35,000 quintals of produce per year, explains about the start of the Salento new potato season.
"The campaign started a few days ago with greenhouse potatoes, a high quality produce destined for the German market. We will start with the open field campaign before Easter, weather permitting, as this year the weather has been quite good and without frost so far. This is why those who risked sowing early are now ready to harvest."
"As regards the Salento area, potato crops have diminished by 20-25% from last year. Cooperative members have sown more or less the same quantity of previous years and they hope to make more profits as the season seems to be going well."
"Galatina's Sieglinde new potato is the flagship of this area and the Cooperative wants to promote it as a high quality produce. It is in fact trying to make its members adopt integrated control principles i.e. harvesting the produce when it is perfectly developed and selecting it accurately."
"Sowing has been delayed in Italy and North Central Europe because of the weather, but this year we will also have to take into consideration lower consumption and the stocks available in Europe."
The Acli Racale cooperative wishes to promote the potatoes cultivated in the Salento Ionian area and, on top of strengthening the cultivation of the Sieglinde and Annabelle varieties, it is carrying out experiments on other new varieties destined to high-quality mass retailing.
"This would increase our production and enable us to supply a high quality produce to the region and to the rest of Italy, rather than importing it. Investing in the local market could be the right solution for our producers, as it would increase employment and territorial sustainability," concludes Enzo Manni.
Contacts
Soc. Agr. Coop. ACLI - Racale
Enzo Manni
Via Provinciale Racale - Ugento km 1,1
73055 Racale (LE)
Tel.: (+39) 0833 551848
Fax: (+39) 0833 583484
Email: [email protected]
